Dark Chamber

In a recent National Geographic Magazine I read an article about a photographer named Abelardo Morell who uses pinhole cameras to project images of the outdoors and capture them on the inside walls of buildings. Camera Obscura, or "dark chamber," is a simple way to capture an image upside down in any room. All you have to do is darken the room completely and cut a little opening for light to come in. It seems like most youth rooms, the ones not in windowless basements, would have the potential to be converted into camera obscura's and thus create a fantastic image of the outside on your own youth room wall. You can watch this video and see how to convert your youth room, or any other room in the church, into a camera obscura.

The fun part of the this process is that naturally the image appears on the walls upside down. We often forget that our brains reverse the images we see, so unaided light will show us the reverse image of what we see out of our windows. This opens up some fun lessons for your youth group to explore together. You could discover together how Jesus turned the world upside down using parables of the kingdom of God that often were the opposite of what people expected. Going through the large block of teaching in the 5th chapter of Matthew's gospel provides many examples of Jesus telling them, "You have heard it said," "but I say to you." These teachings were often the opposite of what the people expected to hear. Ask the youth group about what things in their lives they might need to look at differently? If they could reverse the way something is going in their life what would it be?

Another direction would be to go through John's gospel and study all the references John makes to "light," and "darkness." It is quite amazing how just a small sliver of light can let in an entire image of beauty from the outside. Luke 11:34 talks about how the eye is the lamp of the body and how we can be full of light or darkness depending on what we are taking in. That verse could be used to discuss the images we see each day and maybe even open a dialogue about the destructive forces of pornography. In the end the most important lesson is to share with youth that through Christ we are invited to be tiny windows THROUGH which others see the light of God and thus have their worlds turned upside down.