For years I have quipped of Timothy, “He is today’s John the Baptist” without considering the full implication of such an indictment. When you consider what we know of Jesus’ cousin the word oddity comes to mind. He certainly made odd clothing choices… ate odd food; even for his day. His message was not necessarily popular… repentance is no ones favorite sermon. I suggest that the thing that actually made John and Timothy odd was not their deviance from the norm of the day, but their single eye, their willingness and joy in walking out their solitary devotion. They both lived poured out lives. As the world looks on such contentment and fidelity with the living God they do not identify with those qualities and so find them odd and unfamiliar…
The bible calls that a ‘single eye’; seeing only Christ in all things. How is that possible in the perilous age in which we live? It is that living out of Luke 10:42 that Mary knew so well; “One thing is needful” A seeming contradiction to every thing we can see with our natural eyes. Timothy, like John, like Mary (also an oddity) came to a place in life where they easily distinguished the sacred from the profane. It sounds easy, the words sound like opposite poles, but all of life is begging to inhabit the gray space; when Black or white is the archetype. Hot or cold is the precedent…God save us from being lukewarm!
Timothy’s union with his God burned white hot, for all the world to see. He was a burning bush in our desert, unconsumed for our benefit. He can never be replaced…
~ Darenda Anastazi
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