“The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.” —2 Timothy 4:22, NIV
Famous farewells, recorded for history, tell us much about the human condition and our wishes for each other. There are many notable ones, such as:
“Until we meet again, may the good Lord take a liking to you.” —Roy Rogers
“This is the last of earth! I am content.” —John Q. Adams, sixth U.S. president
“I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” —Lou Gehrig, saying good-bye to baseball
“I must go in, the fog is rising.” —Emily Dickinson, poet
“O, holy simplicity!”—John Huss, a priest, burned at the stake in 1415
“I still live.”—Daniel Webster
“I’ve always loved my wife, my children, and my grandchildren, and I’ve always loved my country. I want to go. God, take me.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower, thirty-fourth President of the United States.
You can do an internet search and find hundreds of touching and fascinating last words, but there are probably no more caring and inspired ones than the apostle Paul’s words to his young friend, Timothy: “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.”
“The Lord be with your spirit” is personal. He meant it for Timothy alone; a blessing Timothy would carry with him until the end of his days. Then Paul bid farewell with his favorite word. “Grace be with you,” he wrote to his readers. This he meant for everyone, his beloved Christian community, whom he loved and prayed for. Every one of Paul’s benedictions contains the word “grace.”
At the end of his life, Paul’s concern was for those he left behind and the many who would follow the Lord. He longed for what God desires for us—grace.
I pray that I will all die with love in our hearts and grace on our lips. I pray that we can all know amazing grace in those last hours of life on earth.
Now may God’s unmerited favor, forgiveness, and enabling power be poured out upon His children. Grace be with you.
