"BEHOLD!"

My wife and I had lain down to take a little siesta the other day and I found myself staring at the ceiling and daydreaming.  Suddenly I began to think about an envelope in my desk with some cash in it that a group of ladies in the church had given me to buy my wife a new dress.  One day when they were together praying for my wife’s healing, one of them pictured her totally well and wearing a red dress.  So by faith they took a collection and asked me to purchase the dress.  I informed them that I would hold on to their gift and follow through on their request at the right time.

As all that drifted through my mind I began to think back and consider if my wife had ever even worn a red dress before.  Almost immediately I was reminded of the time a few days before our wedding when we were out shopping in the local WT Grants department store.*  I am not quite sure what we were looking for, but while there we found a fantastic looking red dress with the word “vote” written all over it.  It was on sale at a great price so Piper went in to try it on.  When she came out… well, all I can say is that I was “blown away!”  The dress fit her like a glove and brought out all of her charming young features.  Oh, by the way, did I mention that it was a mini dress?

Needless to say I was smitten by the way she looked in it and when I was finally able to catch my breath and move from my frozen position with my mouth wide open, we decided to purchase the dress!  She wore that dress to our wedding rehearsal that weekend and to the subsequent dinner at my folk’s home afterwards.  Looking back now, I am not too sure that it was the right choice for the rehearsal, but you know, those dresses were in style back then in the mid-seventies and we were young and maybe not so bright as we are today!

The feeling that swept me off my feet that day over 37 years ago is the same one that I believe that our heavenly Father wants to project to us at times when He uses the word “BEHOLD” to begin a statement in His Word.  Take Jeremiah 33:6 for an example.  This verse among other things is a prophecy of our healing that is provided through the atonement of Jesus.  It is one of the 120 plus verses on healing from the Bible that I read from multiple times a day to my wife.  Since this prophetic word has already been completed through Jesus’ finished work of the cross, I read it in the past tense and have personalized it for her saying: “BEHOLD, I have brought you health and a cure, and I have cured you and am revealing unto you the abundance of My peace and My truth.” (KJV)

The way that my wife caught my TOTAL attention that day when she stepped from the dressing room is how God wants us to act when He makes the statement of “BEHOLD!”  He is telling us to STOP and PAY ATTENTION because He has some BREATHTAKING truths that He is about to tell us.  His Word to us in Jeremiah 33:6 perfectly fits that description!  It is the GOOD NEWS of what He has provided for us if we become sick!  I believe that He really means to get our TOTAL attention and BUY-IN when He makes a statement that begins with “BEHOLD!”

So, with that in mind, it might be fun and quite rewarding for you to take some time and go through your Bible and underline and then take to heart what He says when He begins a thought with “BEHOLD!”  He means to catch your attention and change your life!

Well, I have GOT to run.  My cousin just brought my wife and I over a big dish full of her personal, homemade with lots of love, recipe of Penne Pasta and meatballs and believe-you-me it is calling out “BEHOLD” from the counter!  Have a great day.  Stay in tune to His Word and keep asking yourself… “What ‘BEHOLD’ of His Word am I expecting to KNOW today?”



* For you younger folks... WT Grants was a chain of general department stores who opened their first store in 1906 and during their heydays in the '60's and '70's had over 1200 stores from coast to coast.  Our store even had a lunch counter in it!  They went out of business in 1976.