behold

Truth sees God, and wisdom beholds God, and from these two comes the third, and that is a marvelous delight in God, which is love.
                                                                       ~Julian of Norwich


I have been thinking a lot lately, thanks to Lady Julian of Norwich, about the value of beholding.  Particularly the value of beholding God.  It seems to be a bit of a lost art in this busy and hurried world, but one that is essential to the process of spiritual growth, as we journey towards the destination of delight.  As a matter of fact, it seems that the journey towards delight must pass through the land of beholding.  In order to be captured by the beauty of the truth, we must look long and attentively at the object of that truth (Jesus).  We must not be content to stop at truth once we discover it; or it discovers us, whichever you prefer.  Once seen, the truth must be beheld.  It must become a part of us.  It must be deeply seen, deeply known, deeply experienced.  We must be captured by its beauty.  To behold literally means to hold onto that which we see and to be with it.  This seems, however, to be the part that is most often left out of the spiritual equation.  Because of our busyness, or our impatience, or our unwillingness, or even our fear, we tend to skip over that part, much to our own demise.  Truth is a wonderful thing, but wisdom would tell us that if we do not allow ourselves to be captured by the beauty of the truth it can easily be missed, or, even worse, turned into a weapon.  So let's recapture this important part of the spiritual process.  Let us make time and make space to continually behold our great God, and thus allow the truth, through the power of the Spirit, to transform our lives.


And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.  For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)