We have lost our wonder; we have misplaced our awe. In an age when we use the term awesome so flippantly, it’s easy to understand we’ve lost the gravitas of the word. In short, we are not beholding as we should.

In his book Behold: An Invitation to Wonder (Christian Focus, 2021), pastor and author Justin O. Huffman seeks to show us, through the pages of Scripture, that God calls us to behold His work.

Huffman takes readers through each of the Bible’s most astonishing events. From the virgin birth, the baptism of Jesus, all the way to the second coming of Christ—he shows us that God is not wanting us to merely gloss over this information, but behold it!

“We are starving for wonderful,” Huffman writes. “Our souls are shriveling because they were made to feed on truly awesome realities and instead we are tossing them the crumbs of dreary escapism” (9).

This is why he exhorts us to behold the glory of the Lord throughout Scripture. “The command to ‘Behold’ appears over 200 times in the New Testament, many times quoting the over 900 times that the equivalent term is used in the Old Testament,” he writes.

So, what does it mean to behold? “It is a potent word,” he pens, “inviting us to slow from our hurried pace in order to gaze at what God has put before us in His Word” (11).

When God calls us to behold in a particular passage, He’s exhorting us to linger, to meditate, to think much on. Scripture isn’t meant to be read like the daily newspaper. If we believe it’s God-breathed, we should behold this glorious story!

Justin Huffman wrote a fantastic book here that every Christian should read. It would do you well to purchase a copy and perhaps purchase more to give away—and behold!

Buy here.