Preserving the Memories

When my dad’s health deteriorated enough that he had to move out of his home to an assisted living facility, it fell largely to me to clean out his place and put it up for sale.

In the process of going through everything, I came across a cache of old super 8 movies. Remember those? If you lived in the late 60s and early 70s, you witnessed the advent and popularizing of the format. Kodak came up with it, followed by a new line of movie cameras.

Dad had one of the Kodak movie cameras, slightly larger than many typical digital video cameras today. All you had to do was pop a 3” square cartridge in the back of the camera, and you were ready to film. In the cache, I discovered a half-dozen unused or unprocessed cartridges.

But I also found several reels of processed film.

So, I had this brilliant idea of getting all that film transferred to a digital format to preserve the content. I didn’t know what that content was but figured it was footage from something in my childhood—family vacations, Christmas, camping, etc. Then I found out how much the transfer process costs!

$12 for 50 feet of film!

A Hefty Pricetag!

I have three reels with 400 feet on each reel. Then there are few smaller reels, look like they were cartridges that had been processed. Perhaps another 50 feet each. So, standing at the counter in the store that would process the transfer, I did some quick math. At least 1,400 feet of film at $12 per 50 feet…over $300!?!? No way.

I asked the proprietor if there was any way I could preview what’s on the film. After all, I may not even want the stuff. No, he told me, there really wasn’t unless I bought a film editor for maybe $200-300.

Thinking out loud, I suggested I’d just find a super 8 movie projector and preview that way.

Not going to work, he replied. Film shrinks over the years, he explained, so the holes on the film wouldn’t line up properly with the sprockets on the projector. Result? The projector would eat the film and ruin it. Best bet, if at all interested in preserving what’s on that film, is let them process it through their machine. At $12 per 50 feet.

Or let the memories die.

I left the shop, deciding to see if my sister has dad’s old projector, then take the risk of running the film through it. Perhaps I could at least get an idea of what’s on the film before the projector destroyed it. I’ll let you know how that goes sometime.

Remembering a Memory

Realizing whatever’s on that film may end up being lost forever—for good or ill—got me thinking about a tract that had been quite popular in the 1970s. Entitled, “This Was Your Life,” the message of the tract declared that Judgment Day will be like a humongous movie theater with every human being in attendance.

One by one, God will load the film of your life, from birth to death, into the cosmic projector and play it for all to see. Everything you’ve ever said. All you’ve ever done. Those thoughts mused in the privacy of your mind. All there in technicolor on a screen so large it dwarfs an IMAX; there for millions—billions—of voyeuristic humans to behold. But everyone is equally horrified—they know their life will be projected sooner or later!

In the tract, the soul watches in horror as he sees all the stuff he’s done, sins committed he thought know one knew about. But God knew and kept a record on film that doesn’t shrink in time or eternity. And there it all is.

Now, to be sure, the Bible indeed speaks of a coming judgment. And God does keep a record to hold individuals to account.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.

— Revelation 20:12–13 (ESV)

BUT, this doesn’t have to be something dreaded!

An Alternative!

God has made encouraging promises for some people.

And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

– Jeremiah 31:34 (ESV)

The promise is repeated and applied in the New Testament:

 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

– Hebrews 10:16–17 (ESV)

So, if the Lord promises to “remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more,” then they won’t be projected on a humongous screen in heaven, right?

And then there’s this one:

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

– Psalm 103:11–12 (ESV)

How far is the east from the west? Right. Immeasurable. What’s the point of the promise? Correct. The Lord removes transgressions so far from Himself that they’ll never be reached again.

And how about…

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

– Micah 7:18–19 (ESV)

Again, the point? Sins cast into the depths of the sea, heavy weights cast overboard from the ship of life, sinking to the bottom, never to be recovered again.

It’s like the filmed memories of your life, the miniscule details of everyday life tainted by the least blot of sin, end up being chewed up by the divine projection machine. Ruining the film. Rendering it useless. Consigning those memories to oblivion, to the sea of God’s forgetfulness (to quote an old gospel chorus from the 70s), and that’s good enough for me.

Ah, but there is a caveat to this film obliteration. Psalm 103 alludes to it:

“…so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him…”

Those whose sins are forgiven, cast away as far as the east is from the west, thrown overboard into the depths of the sea, are those who “fear him.”

There’s a great deal to be said about what’s involved in fearing Him. In fact, a recent book—Rejoice and Tremble—handles the subject very well. For our purposes in this brief post, though, the one who fears God acknowledges who He is (Creator, Judge, and Savior), repents of his sin (instead of defending, excusing, or justifying it), and trusts God to save his soul (solely on the basis of the sacrificial death and resurrection of God the Son, Jesus), knowing he absolutely cannot save himself. To learn more about this, watch The Story. And then listen to an explanation of The Gospel.

The wonderful truth for those who fear God is there will be no movie showing all the embarrassing, sordid details of their lives. That film has been chewed up. Obliterated.