Saturday, November 13, 2010

Locusts and Photos





I am sure you are wondering why I am posting photos that are so old. Yes, these are of Carson the day he was born (his birthday is the 10th, but my camera had not been adjusted for daylight savings time, and since he was born at 12:13am the date is wrong in the last one) and he is now over 2 years old. Well, there is a long complicated story, but the short version is this: We took photos. We loaded photos onto the computer. We deleted the photos from the memory card. Computer crashes-over a year ago. I didn't realize until recently that all of the photos we had taken of Carson up until about 4 months were on that computer. We failed in the one task of digital media-we had not backed the photos up.
Joel really felt like we could rescue the contents of the hard drive. I am not a tech savvy person at all. Tech handicapped is more like it! I did not know how this could be done, but I was very sad that essentially all I had was about 10 photos I had printed and about 20 (that included the 10 I had printed) that I had saved on Costco's website. I had two that I had taken the day he was born. Neither had me in them, and there were none of Carson in the delivery room.
I love photos. I am not a good photographer, but usually somewhere along the line I can get a lot of quantity to equal a little bit of quality. Realizing that the sum total of photographic remembrances of Carson's first 8 weeks was a paltry 10 pictures was a tough blow. I know that there are much, much worse things that could have happened. But I was still very sad. We had not suffered a devastating fire, or a terrible flood, or even theft. I had lost those photos through my own negligence, and lack of forethought. I could have purchased a cheap thumb drive, or some CDs and saved them in about 20 minutes. I could have moved them to Shutterfly, or even Facebook, but I wasn't really into those things at the time, and so I didn't. I just left them chance, and unfortunately, it proved to be a poor choice.
I was very regretful of my poor choice. But it did not bring my photos back. To be totally honest, I did not even completely learn from my lesson. I saved photos in various places, Facebook, Shutterfly, etc. but I didn't back up every photo that I took. I tried not to think about the photos, because there was really nothing I could do about it.
Joel had asked people off and on about rescuing the photos but no one really seemed to know what to do. We would talk about taking it to a "professional", but it always seemed to get pushed to the back burner. Then about a week ago, I found him in the floor with laptop and a screwdriver. I have know him long enough that I did not ask any questions. Then he called me over. He had worked some type of magic and there were some of the photos on our current computer. I didn't realize until that point how many pictures had been missing. All my photos from Christmas 2007 through September of 2008 were on that computer. And not all of them were showing up. It seemed all of the ones of Carson's birth were missing.
I tried not to be too upset. I was thankful for all the photos we were able to redeem. No use crying over spilt milk, and some were infinitely better than none. I profusely thanked Joel for his hard work. And we backed up the photos, all of them!
I was working on a post the other day when I decided to add some photos, I was clicking around to find the ones I wanted when I opened a folder by mistake. I clicked on another folder inside the first one to try to get the ones I wanted. I had to squint to figure out the thumbnails when I thought, "That kind of looks like Carson's baby shower". I opened the photo and it was! I started scrolling through the pictures and then I started crying. They were all there. Every photo- the ones of him all wrinkled, red and crying when he came out, my sister holding him, my brother holding him. The ones of Joel, Carson and I in the delivery room. And his first bath. And his sweet first smile. And him curled up in his Boppy pillow. And on and on. It was an amazing gift.
And it made me think about redemption. About having the years the locusts have eaten returned. About how I serve an amazing God who cares about the little things.
"I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten-
the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts
and the locust swarm-my great army that I sent
among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you
are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord
your God, who has worked wonders for you; never
again will my people shamed.
Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the
Lord your God, and that there is no other; never
again will my people be shamed.
And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men
will dream dreams, your young men will see visions."
-Joel 2:25-28 (NIV)
He promises the Israelite people that He will give them back all of their time of bereft wanderings if they will repent and turn back to Him. I know the joy I felt when I was able to see my photos again. I know how excited I was to see those precious images again. It doesn't even begin to compare with how glorious it is to have your life restored when you turn your eyes upon Jesus. I just love that I serve a God whose business is restoration. I love that He cared enough about me to overlook my carelessness and give me back my pictures. But better than that- He gave me life. Thank goodness He looks after fools and little children-I will let you decide which I am.

5 comments:

  1. OK, I am SO not a cryer, but this just brought tears to my eyes.

    SO glad to hear you got all your pictures. I can't imagine losing mine...

    ~ Jen

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  2. What a wonderful post! God definitely redeems and restores. It really doesn't get any better than that for reasons to be thankful and to praise God. Your post is such a reminder that He cares about the "little" things. So glad He does and you got your pictures back.

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  3. We are learning in PWOC that God goes beyond "our beyond" meaning that we often forget and limit God, but he can do more than we can comprend. I thought your post showed that in a real way. So happy you got the pics of your little guy back:)

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  4. So happy you recovered your photos. I think that qualifies as a miracle! Have a blessed week, and revel in reliving your memories of the day your sweet Carson was born! Happy Birthday Carson!!!

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  5. WOW! Very cool, He is Amazing. I'm glad to call you friend too--Love you & your posts!!

    ReplyDelete

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