Life by Satellite

Tonight I watched a documentary on the BBC called 'Egypt's Lost Cities' and it inspired me to write this blog post. I've always been fascinated by ancient Egypt from studying it in primary school and later through watching the amazingly awesome musical 'The Prince of Egypt' (not so historically accurate but epic nonetheless..) 


The documentary was good! It was centred around the use of satellite imagery and infra-red technology (termed, "Satellite Archeology") to search beneath the surface of the earth and uncover its archeological secrets. 

To the naked eye, the deserts of Egypt appear barren, empty spaces that support very little life and show no signs of diversity and beauty. As you can see in the image above, what the satellite images show is that beneath the layers of dust and sand is a completely different landscape, full of intricate detail and hidden signs of life.


As I contemplated what I'd seen in the film, it occured to me that too often we take things at surface value or judge by appearances. It was only yesterday in a church youth meeting that I was sharing about us being jars of clay holding the treasure of God's all-surpassing power within us. (2 Cor. 4:7) To the naked eye, we can appear to be nothing more than people who stuff up a lot and live in bodies that are corruptible and can perish. But if we looked at ourselves through God's infra-red satellite lens, we would see that we are actually the most glorious beings on the planet, filled with potential and life that tells of a different world to the one we live in.

Recently I've been understanding more and more of who I truly am to God. No matter what I think of myself, God always thinks something better of me! If I feel like a failure - God tells me I'm victorious in everything through Jesus. If I feel like I have no potential to achieve anything in life - God tells me I have amazing gifts and a purpose that are unique to me as a person.

Looking at ourselves through God's satellite lens is the most important place to start. But once we fully see beneath the surface of our self-image and find our God-image, we can then zoom out and view the whole world through this new lens. We can look at situations that in the past would have appeared to be hopeless, and all of a sudden we see beneath the surface a sign of promise and hope for a good outcome. We can look at the things we say and do and suddenly this new perspective shows us what lies beneath them, and the effect that they can have on others.


I'm convinced now more than ever that absolutely everything in the universe has a layer of sand over it (the physical) and we need to ask God to show us his infra-red view in order to understand what lies beneath it (the spiritual).That revelation only comes through the Holy Spirit, and we learn pretty quickly that in order to gaze beyond layers of sand requires the eyes of our hearts rather than the naked eye. It's a challenge - but once you ask God to show you what he sees when he looks at you and the world around you, the treasure you will find will blow your mind! Even more so than the jem of amethyst the satellite archeologist uncovered in the sands of Egypt at the climax of tonight's documentary..!