Formed for FellowshipSample

Created to Behold

You and I are born to behold. And that’s because we were created to behold.

To behold is more than mere seeing. I see my phone on the desk; I see the computer in front of me as I type these words; I see the limbs swaying in the breeze outside of my window. But when my wife smiled at me from across the living room this morning as I sipped coffee, my eyes had barely shaken the sleep off, but I beheld my wife.

Beholding is attention that evokes devotion, delight, praise, thanksgiving, or even sorrow. You might be surprised to see sorrow included here, but we all know how easy it is to avoid bearing witness to genuine godly grief. Why does the grieving heart hide their face as they sob in their hands? To be seen in grief and to behold those in grief draws out our humanity into the realm of vulnerable love. Beholding is attention that leads to allegiance and affection.

While there are many good gifts in this world that we are invited to behold, we were created to behold God. To worship Him, to attend to His presence above and beyond any and all else. Nothing but God will ever satisfy this longing. As the writer of Ecclesiastes tells us, eternity has been placed in our hearts (Eccles. 3:11). When Jesus meets the woman at the well in Samaria, she’s thirsty for something beyond what can be pulled up with a bucket. Jesus tells her, “Whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life” (John 4:14). She came looking for water, and Jesus invited her to behold the God who quenches our deepest thirsts.

Adam and Eve were created so that they could behold God by living their life in His presence, reflecting His purposes, in His place. God creates the world as a temple that is to be filled with the worship of God. Humanity was designed to worship God, reflect His image to the world, and bear witness throughout all of creation to His glory. The rupture in the garden has disrupted this design, but it hasn’t destroyed it. When humanity rebelled against God, they fractured their fellowship with God, but they weren’t forsaken by Him. We were created to behold God so we can become like God. But we need real help.