The Family is Like a Book

The organizing of Mark & Cyndy Weiss family photos begins.

I am in the process of digitizing my family photos.  It is a long process.

First I must sort and find the best of the the thousands of 4 x 6 photos taken over 40 years that I have stored in oversized plastic boxes.  Then I need to prepare for scanning and labeling each photos.   Will I have enough hard drive space?

I have no idea how long it will take me to scan them all, but my goal is to have this done by Christmas 2015.   Then I will need to buy a special drive and prepare a Millenial disk that will store the photos in a more permanent way.

(Check out this video about the M-Disc that is supposed to last 1000 years!  http://youtu.be/bQENbP8npsw)
 <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bQENbP8npsw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Then I burn or print the M-disks and distribute them family members.  Finally I upload to the "cloud" and then this project is "completed"....  

What kind of record will this be? Is it a photo book, a memory book, a scrapbook, a Book of Remembrance? 

I just read this poem that I thought was a good one:

The family is like a book –
The children are the leaves,
The parents are the covers
That protecting beauty gives.

At first the pages of the book
Are blank and purely fair,
But Time soon writeth memories
And painteth pictures there.

Love is the little golden clasp
That bindeth up the trust;
Oh, break it not, lest all the leaves
Should scatter and be lost!

                                                     ~Anonymous

The beautiful cover represents parents, the pages are like the children, and the clasp symbolizes love.

Is this 2015 photo project to become my "Book of Remembrance"?  Will it help me remember happy times when I am older and my own memory is fading?  Is this momento or record really going to last?  What kind of reminder will this photo collection be to my great grand-children?  Will the recounting of the story that goes with the image be different from what actually happened? 

During my lifetime I have seen photo images go from black and white prints, to color photos, to poloroid photos, to slides, and now digital photos.  They all have to be organized someway.  Then there are family videos: VHS,  small video cassettes and then digital videos.  Whether I choose to use iPhoto, Photoshop or Lightroom to organize this project, I will probably see my photos migrate to a new form before I "cross over".   What form will they take into the future?  Will our posterity know who we are by the photos we preserve? 

Just as computers with spinning parts will one day "spin no more", I know that my days are numbered upon the earth.   I guess one way to "lengthen our days" is to create BOOKS in all forms.  

Ultimately, I desire to create a Book of Remembrance that will be acceptable to the Lord.  I don't think it has much of anything to do with photos, but a lot to do with the love that is written on my heart and reflected by images in those photos I am trying to preserve.  

Love is the little golden clasp
That bindeth up the trust;
Oh, break it not, lest all the leaves

Should scatter and be lost!

Bonus =====

We read about a Book of Remembrance in Malachi  (The following is from the website:  http://www.hissheep.org/special/hebrew/the_book_of_remembrance.html ):

Malachi 3:16 “Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.” 

This word remembrance is from a Hebrew word (zikrown, zik-rone') that means to remember a day or something in the form of a writing. Strong gives us: “a memento (or memorable thing, day or writing):--memorial, record.” It refers to something that had been recorded or written down as a reminder. 

The root word for the Hebrew word for remembrance (zikrown, zik-rone') is (zakar, zaw-kar') which means to mark something, also to mark, to remind, recount, mention, make to be remembered. 

So in its setting, it says that God is marking His people in heaven, placing their name in a special book to insure favor and a blessing upon them in the future. He marks their name in the book of remembrance to mark people for a blessing in the future.

The book of remembrance is a book of deliverance also. We see that in Malachi 3:16-18 that God delivers the people whose names are in it as a Father delivers His son. 

“Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. 

And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.” 

God calls His people ‘jewels’, those that discern between the righteous and wicked, between those who serve God and those who don’t.
====