Shadow Sites

While in London last week, we looked around some of the exhibits at the V&A Museum. There is one of Middle Eastern photography, the way it both can reveal and distort truth. In particular, we watched a video by Jananne Al-Aru called Shadow Sites II. 

In a series of aerial videos shot over a vast swathe of apparently empty, dead desert, the videos revealed that as the focus closed in on the desert floor, life was evident. Entire communities, lines of cultivation and residential properties, became identifiable the closer the camera got to the ground.

It made me think of how many times we may assume that friends or acquaintances have no spiritual life going on inside them, because from our perspective there is no evidence. Our perspectives are never fool-proof, though; they may distort truth. 

It reminds me of a conversation I had years ago, a conversation of which I am ashamed, in which I accused someone of not ‘believing in Jesus anyway’. The retort came back in a flash. ‘How do you know what I believe?’

Of course there should be evidence. James wrote that faith without works is dead. But sometimes spiritual awakening may be just beginning in someone, and evidence may not yet be discernible. 

Note to Self: never assume; never condemn; always be generous towards other people.