No Files Found

by Brian Hasse

High School Youth Director at First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana

My wife wanted to have my oldest son Troy make a card for his K-5 teacher on the last day of school. We had taken some pictures with my digital camera at his graduation, so my wife asked me to print out a picture of Troy and his teacher.

            I took out the memory card and plugged it into our computer. I had purchased some new software for photos, and the program automatically opened. It read that there were over 450 pictures on the card. It asked me to choose what pictures I wanted to copy to the photo album. I chose the pictures we had taken on Monday to move to a folder labeled “Troy’s Graduation” The software then asked if I wanted to delete all the pictures after copying. I pushed “Yes.”

            As soon as I did, I realized the mistake I had made, so I hit “cancel.” I then went through the process of again choosing the pictures, and I pushed “No” when the question “Delete ALL pictures?” flashed on the screen. My wife was standing next to me. I looked at her and said, “Wow! Could you imagine if I had deleted all those pictures?”

            Those were priceless pictures. Trinity’s first birthday, Easter Sunday, and my parents’ fiftieth anniversary party were just some of the 450-plus pictures on the memory card. I walked away while the pictures copied to the new folder. When I came back a few minutes later, I printed out the picture my wife asked me for. I then returned to copy all the rest of the pictures onto the computer. But when I opened the folder where all the pictures were, it was empty!

            I took the memory card out of the computer and re-inserted it. The same software program opened up, but it said, “No files found.” Now I was getting concerned. I took the card out and pushed it in again. Same software program, same message. Now my heart was pounding pretty hard. Thankfully, my wife was sitting upstairs, not suspecting anything was wrong. I went upstairs and grabbed my camera. I put in the memory card, and sure enough, it was empty. Somehow all the pictures we had taken over the past four months were gone!

            I yelled at my computer. I spent 30 minutes scouring my camera and computer looking for those deleted files. Finally, in a last-ditch effort, I went to Google and typed in “lost pictures on digital camera memory card.” I figured I’d get some Website where people would boo-hoo together about the stories of how they lost memories of a lifetime.

            Instead, a Website popped up that said, “recover deleted photos.” My heart skipped a beat as I clicked on this site. I downloaded a trial version of the software. It said to insert the card. I did. The software began to run a scan to recover the deleted files. Imagine my happiness as I saw picture after picture pop onto my screen—pictures I thought I had lost forever. I had to buy the full version to save my lost photos, but it was well worth the money to get back what I had deleted. Somehow those files were still written on the memory card even after they could no longer be seen on a computer or a camera.

            I began thinking about the training that goes into Christian kids. It doesn’t matter where you go and what you do, what you have learned will always be with you. The many Sunday school lesson you have heard taught by faithful Sunday school teachers will never leave you. All the sermons you have heard will follow you for the rest of your life. The Bible verses you have memorized will always be a part of you. Those verses will be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path while you travel on the road of life.

            Dr. Eddie Lapina was telling me a story about a young man he met recently in a department store. The boy had attended Hammond Baptist Schools his entire life, but during his senior year, he was expelled for drinking. Brother Eddie had not seen this boy for years. They shook hands and chatted a while, and as Brother Eddie turned to leave, the boy asked him to do one thing. He asked Brother Eddie to say hello to Dr. Boyd, the principal at Hammond Baptist High School. Brother Eddie agreed and again turned to leave.

            The boy stopped Brother Lapina one more time and said, “You know, even though I am not living at all like I was trained, I still know what I should be doing. I’ve never forgotten what Dr. Boyd taught me.”

            I couldn’t help but think how that young man is just like my memory card. If you look at his spiritual life, you won’t see what you’re looking for, but if you look deeper, you’ll find that everything is still there waiting to be accessed and used.