I HAD OVER 400 PHOTOS and videos on the memory card of my Grandpa Camera, a nice little tool I bought when my two grandkids showed up a little over a year ago.
The images got accidentally deleted by someone looking at them on my camera last week.
About half of the photos and videos were ones I took of my granddaughter’s first birthday party.
I didn’t get a chance to back them up onto the computer because shortly after the party, I made an overnight drive to visit family in Ohio.
The other half of the photos and videos were of that spring break visit: family, backyard deer, snow on the pines.
The person looking at the photos spent a few minutes finger-pulling one picture after another across the camera’s small monitor. In the process, she must have accidentally tapped the three buttons it takes to delete all the photos.
Note to Panasonic regarding their Lumix GH4: What were you thinking? Two words: Firmware update.
When the two of us realized what happened, tension filled the room as palpably as I suspect the Holy Spirit did when he filled the disciples at Pentecost.
There were no flames hovering above our heads, or fire from the mouth. But I felt my stomach drop. And as I started to remember some of the images I lost, I may have thought a flushable word.
Take a deep breath
The two of us separated for a few minutes.
Afterward, I walked back over to her and hugged her. With my head resting beside hers, I said, “I know you feel bad. But people are more important than pictures.”
Back home, I spent time with a couple of photo recovery software products, and an evening with tech support. We recovered most of the photos, but so far none of the 4K video. It doesn’t look like we’ll get that back. But my wife was taking backup video with another camera. Excellent work for a rib bone (Genesis 2:22).
I sent a text message to Ohio, asking someone to pass it along to the person who needed to hear it. I’ll paraphrase it, to protect the identity:
“Remind her that she is more important than pictures. I can make other pictures. I can’t make another her.”
Looking at the recovered pictures yesterday, I was certainly glad to have them back. But they aren’t all that great.
If you compare the value of the relationship to the value of those measly pictures, it would be like comparing the value of the Sistine Chapel to that of a dried booger stuck under a school desk.
Recently, no one has accused me of being profound.
Saint Paul on the job
Paraphrasing the Casual English Bible seems to be affecting me.
When I realized the camera’s memory card was empty and I left the room to adjust to a new reality, I remembered something I was working on a few days earlier. Here’s the verse I paraphrased from Paul’s two letters to Timothy, which are letters I hope to post to the Casual English Bible website within a week:
“God put his Spirit in us…It’s a spirit of power, to make us loving and self-controlled masters of our own behavior” (2 Timothy 1:7, Casual English Bible).
I think I’ll keep working on this Bible paraphrase.
Blog subscribers who win books this week
- Chris Keen
- Marcia Droeger
I give away free books every week to randomly selected subscribers to my free blog or my quarterly newsletter.
Winners now get to choose from a stack of titles, including my two most recent: A Visual Walk Through Genesis and The One-Stop History of the Bible.
Note to the two winners: send me an email and I’ll give you the full list of books from which you can choose.
The deal’s good for a month, or for as long as I have giveaway books available.
Steve, I really liked this article! I wish a lot of people could think like you did in this situation! People are a lot more important than most things!!
I think you are right, Cathy. Maybe some of us have to lose a few people before we figure it out, though.
Stephen,
I just finished reading your blog “Acting Christian When Somebody Deletes Your Pictures”. As usual, I truly enjoyed reading it. This is the same emotion I have when I read your writings and your books, although, I have to admit, I haven’t been able to read all of the them, just many of them. I loved your comment about your wife, “Excellent work for a rib bone” (Genesis 2:22).
Sincerely in Jesus love and grace,
Richard K. Hagee