The Glimpse

What catches your eye? What beckons your gaze? I could look at a sunset for hours. A rainbow is one of the most incredible visual promises that life offers.  Each of us defines beauty differently but all of us would say, that whatever object we call 'beautiful' is worthy of our gaze.  In Before The Beginning, Helel removes his gaze from the Most Beautiful One and puts it on his own dazzling, gem-laden spirit-body.  The Most Beautiful One even calls Helel "perfect in beauty" in Ezekiel 28:13.

Daily, we are greeted with beautiful scenes and beautiful man-made objects that are worthy of at least a moment's notice on our part. But for some in this world, these objects pale in comparison to the glimpse of the Creator, the Most Beautiful One. I had my first glimpse when I was five. I was looking at a book in one of the bedrooms at my grandmother's house in Ohio. One page featured a man hanging from a cross. In my five year old mind's eye, I saw a cross standing up in front of me, and eyes looking down at me, and I heard in my five year old ear, the words "This is for you".  I have never forgotten that glimpse.  The Cross and the man hanging from it, looking down at me, was a picture of beauty.  The full realization of that beautiful sacrifice would not peak until I was sixteen, but nevertheless, when I was five years old, my heart was captured by a glimpse.