Lenten Gestures - Beholding

Matthew 25:6

"[...] “But at midnight there was a cry "Behold the Bridegroom! Come to meet him’."

I must admit that I read verse six with a tinge of skepticism. After mulling through long stretches of waiting, it is easy to dismiss the strands of encouragement that periodically cross your path. Unfortunately, skepticism can easily cause one to miss the moment of actualization. If, after waiting for so long, the actualization does suddenly materialize, will you be caught off guard? Will you be ready to receive?

To behold is to take notice of, to witness, to suddenly fill your gaze on a fixated point of chosen clarity. Beholding goes one step further than simply “looking”. To behold is to take in and to wonder.

Hasn’t God filled your life with wonders worth beholding? Even when you’ve waited for the next to materialize, wasn’t there always something in the now that spoke to the glorious works of thoughtfulness, intentionality, and creativity on part of the Creator? Hasn’t each “now” set you up to finally and fully behold that which you craved for, prayed over, and thought long and hard about? I find in Matthew 25: 6 the reminder that God does indeed always deliver on what God has promised. There will always be a moment to behold when it comes to what God has spoken to be true.

I recently heard a pastor speak about how time is simply catching up to what God has already known and spoken to be true (Torré Roberts, pastor of The Potter’s House at OneLA). I find the permeability of God’s timespace fascinating - that we can move through time in what appears to be a linear unfolding, but in God’s actuality (the Truth of all that is actual), time unfolds over and over again upon itself, moving in circulatory patterns, criss-crossing across dimensions, unfolding at times in full view of what seems speculatory. In full reality, time is actually a mirage of what is to come, of what is left behind, and of what is now. And what is now if not both perpetual promise and opportunity for beholding?

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