The Backup No One Knew Existed

In 1998, Pixar nearly lost Toy Story 2 — the entire film. An engineer accidentally triggered a command that began deleting the movie's files from the studio's servers. Characters started vanishing from scenes. Woody's hat disappeared, then his boots, then Woody himself. By the time anyone noticed, ninety percent of the production had been erased.

Then came the second blow: the backup system had failed. Months of painstaking work by hundreds of artists — gone.

But Galyn Susman, a supervising technical director who had been working from home while caring for her newborn, had a recent copy of the entire film on her home computer. The team drove to her house, wrapped the machine in blankets, buckled it into a car seat like a child, and carried it back to the studio. Frame by frame, Toy Story 2 was restored.

Here is the gospel in a Pixar server room. We are the corrupted file. Sin has run its deleting command through our lives, erasing what the Creator designed — peace, purpose, wholeness. And our own backup systems fail us. Willpower fails. Self-improvement fails. Good intentions fail.

But God kept a copy. Before the foundation of the world, He held the original design for your life. And through Christ, He does not merely recover what was lost — He restores it, frame by frame, day by day, until the masterpiece is complete.

No corruption is too deep for the One who holds the original.