Sound but no Picture

Recently, I decided to pull out our wedding tape for my wife and I to watch on a date night. Neither of us had seen the tape for a few years (the last time I saw it was when we watched it on our first anniversary in 2002). I was anxious to see how we had changed and to remember all the people who were there. How was everyone lined up on stage? When did we sing our praise songs? What did people say to us in their taped messages? We were really looking forward to watching the tape of our wedding day.

Well, we didn't get to watch it. I put the tape in and all that was showing up was static. It started to clear up, but the picture was extremely blurry and distorted. It was also in the middle of the tape, so I decided to rewind it in order to be able to watch the whole thing. (Bad idea)

After rewinding the tape and trying to start watching it, we discovered something bad. There was no picture, at all, not even a blurry one. All we had was sound. Normally you wouldn't sit and watch a VHS tape will only sound (that's called a cassette tape), but you might if its your wedding tape. We sat and listened to different parts of the tape.

But the crazy thing was that I (I can't speak for Amy here) found myself very moved by what I was hearing. To hear, even though we couldn't see, our friends sharing thoughts and words for us on our marriage and friendship made me emotional. To listen to Troy share his thoughts, to listen to Kevin & Darin lead worship, to listen to Tim sing Love Song by Third Day. It was moving. It was a moment that stirred my soul.

I am going to try to see if we can get a picture to show up or see if anyone in my family has a copy of the wedding and do whatever I can to try to get the video back. But if we do not ever get the video back, I'll be ok with the sound. For within those words are memories. Within those words is love. And I don't want to lose that.

Plus, I consider it a blessing to even have the sound. Amy taped a friend's wedding and the only copy of the wedding was on our camcorder. Well, that was the camcorder (with the tape in it) that was stolen from our house. So, we were never able to give our friends a copy of their wedding. Which I still feel bad about.