Dear one,
At this writing the temperature is -12F with a wind chill of -33F; schools are closed and many businesses have encouraged their employees to stay and/or work at home. From my perspective, to describe this day as “cold” or “biting” is ludicrous: if 32F is freezing, what adjective rightly describes 60 degrees below freezing? “Arctic”? I know not, but thankfully we are warm and safe—and hopefully at this moment you are the same.
With these cold temperatures, I was reminded of Paul’s words to his beloved Timothy: “Hasten to come before winter” (cf. 2Timothy 4:6-21). Wherever Paul had been imprisoned (i.e. Rome, Ephesus, or Caesarea?) for Timothy to travel to him amid wintry conditions would have been difficult; however, Paul’s imperatives, “hasten” (verses 9 and 21) reflect not only his concern for Timothy’s wellbeing, but his own circumstances:
Just prior to the imperative of verse 9, he had written: “[The] season (ὁ καιρὸς) of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight; I have completed the race; I have kept the faith” (verses 6-7). That is, Paul recognized that his death was imminent: on trial for his life, he had already presented his first defense—alone, and yet he knew his Lord’s presence (verses 16-17), and was confident of his Lord’s salvation and Kingdom (verse 18). Even so, he desired that Timothy come to him quickly, so that he might have the benefit of a warm cloak and his cherished books, “especially the parchments” (verse 13).
Surely Paul’s final words to Timothy present a vivid picture: he was imprisoned; he felt greatly alone, or even abandoned; he knew of death’s approach—and yet he wanted those books and parchments. There was more to do, ponder, learn, and experience. Even if he had completed “the race,” there was more; and if you’ll allow me poetic license, he was living the last moments “of the fall of his life” and soon “the winter of his life,” death, would be his. In essence he penned: “Dear Timothy, come to me before death’s winter—for our Lord’s sake, I still have work to do and life to give. Or as our Lord once said: ‘[Night] comes when no one is able to work.’”
Perhaps I am merely reflecting my own season of life, but I wonder: For our Lord’s sake, what battle must you still fight; what race must you still complete; what writings must you still read? However you answer these, know that Jesus is with you.
With a view toward winter,
Stan