Dear friend,
When Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed. When he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy; so they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. His hands were steady until sunset.
I stayed up until 1 a.m. once counting my mother-in-law's pills into a plastic tray instead of sleeping, because if I did it in daylight I'd get interrupted three times and mess up Tuesday's row. That was the night I realized I hadn't sat down, just sat down, in about six days. Not one full minute where my body wasn't bracing for the next thing.
I keep thinking about how caring for someone shows up as a hundred small tasks that never announce themselves as the reason you're exhausted. It's never one big thing. It's the tray, the calls, the standing in the pharmacy line again. There's a detail in Exodus 17 that stuck with me this week, where Moses's arms get tired just from holding something up, and someone else literally holds his hands steady. Not a miracle. Just people propping up a body that couldn't do it alone anymore.
So here's the small thing for tonight, nothing bigger than that. What is one task you could hand to someone else this week, even badly done, just to get your arms down for an hour?
A prayer
God, her arms are tired in ways no one else can see from the outside. Send someone willing to hold them up tonight, even for an hour, and let her rest without guilt. Amen.