We are frequently reminded that mankind is made in the image of God. How nice would it be if that were still true?
My wife and I parented our two daughters in the age of the camcorder, video cameras with miniature tapes that one connected to a VCR (video cassette recorder - look it up in a museum or on wikipedia) to transfer memories one had captured to a full size tape for later playback. In addition to one's own videos or movies purchased on a VCR tape, VCR tapes often were used for taping TV shows for later viewing.
Joelyn had opted to only capture videos of our darlings at happy times. While it does create fond memories and great watching, it also is possible that not every time was a happy time. One such example was at the first birthday party for Kristi, our youngest. Katie, the oldest, did not exactly attain the definition of “happy times” during the party. In fact, she was a little terrorist. But, it was a first birthday and had to be captured. So in the midst of the tape of Kristi’s first year of pure happiness, was a rather unpleasant detour for a first birthday.
For this reason, the girls loved to watch this video in their tweener years more than about any other. They would giggle at the awfulness of the event. And yet, there was the underlying “ouch” of a birthday pretty much ruined by an older sibling’s actions.
God tells us our transgressions are forever forgotten, blotted out, when we confess them. Oh how nice it would be if we had that “image of God” likeness. A dear family friend passed away not long ago. She’d lived a good life. Blessed many people. And yet, one of the first comments made was of a very large mess up in the midst of her life. People who hadn’t known of the slip up and who never needed to know, now knew. Perhaps God had blotted her confessed sins out. Humans clearly don’t share in this likeness, this image. Even for dear friends. Uggg.
To protect against accidentally recording over a movie or cherished memories, VCR tapes had a tab on the back of the cassette. If in place, the VCR would not record on that tape. If removed, taping could happen. The simple hack to enable or disable recording was a couple of layers of Scotch tape where the tab had been.
As one transferred videos from the camera micro tape to the large tape, you would remove the tape for the transfer and then add it back in once you were done. At least that is how it is supposed to be done to avoid unintended overrides, after which original video could not be restored. It was, to use God’s words, at that point blotted out.
It has long struck me that the IT term of Garbage In / Garbage Out would be a great option for humans. How nice it would be to take out the garbage allowed into the mind. But human minds don’t work on the Garbage In Garbage Out system. Instead it is Garbage In, Copy out, copy out, copy out, copy out …. We are cursed by our incredible ability to remember things we most want and need to no longer recall. We are certainly NOT in the image of God on this front.
Joelyn was quite the fan of a TV show known as Extreme Home Makeover. Perhaps it was because her brother had participated in one of the projects. Whatever the reason, she left a tape in the VCR connected to our television so she could record the show and watch it later on her own schedule. We rarely used the VCR for other activities so that tape was rarely removed. Unless, of course, the girls were in the mood for watching videotapes of their early cuteness.
What you’ve long suspected by now, is precisely what happened. The girls took out the Extreme Home Makeover tape, inserted the “Kristi’s first year” tape, and left it in the VCR. And dad, who likely was the last to update the tape highlighting Kristi, had NOT replaced the Scotch tape to prevent recording on the tape.
As she did each week, Joelyn rewound the tape in the VCR to the starting point and scheduled her recording. In that one routine move, transgressions of ruining a sister’s first birthday were blotted out, erased forever (sadly along with a whole lot of cherished cuteness).
I remember vividly still today that daughter one did everything she could think of to ruin the birthday of daughter 2. But the actual transgressions … they are slowly blotting out. A gradual implementation of God’s design on display.
As God inserts the video tapes of our lives into the VCR and hits play, it is comforting to know that Joelyn has given us a glimpse into what is seen. Only good times. Happy times. Transgression free times. What a blessing given to us.
There’s no Scotch tape over the tab spot of our life tapes. That means a forever ability to ask for a tape over of our transgressions, a tape over that cannot be anything other than a complete, nonreversible, forever blotting out. And that is an Extreme Makeover worth recording.