Purses

I don’t remember the time or the place — just the feeling of shared excitement. It was a university campus, drama types were gathered, and people with roles to give were auditioning people with dreams to live.

My friend was the dreamer. I was along for the ride.

We were searching the campus map and looking around for the location of her next audition when she spied something in the distance. Suddenly, with Audrey Hepburn-esque grace, she thrust her purse into my arms and lept down the sidewalk. She was halfway to whatever delight had captured her before she noticed I wasn’t with her. She turned around and saw me standing, dumbfounded, right where she’d left me. Holding her purse.

She gasped out an apology between giggles, “I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I did that.”

“It’s okay. I think I’ve found my calling. I’ll be purse bearer to the stars.”

We laughed about that memory for decades.

Presence

We were in our 20s then, in the first one-third of life. We had a few opportunities to hold each other’s purses during our second one-third, but cancer took her home before we got to sixty. Now in the early days of my third one-third, I’m thinking about making my skills known, and hiring myself out as a purse-holder.

There’s definitely a market. I’ve had a few huge life moments–crisis, loss, celebration, and opportunity. In the midst of everything that distracted and discombobulated me, having a friend come alongside to hold my purse was a gift I didn’t know to request.

I tried out my skills with a friend during the week of her daughter’s wedding. It turns out, I’m not that good at it, because the one time she actually needed me to hold her purse, I wasn’t around.

But it’s really just the Ministry of Presence. Being there to check teeth, hems, and straps. Listening. Praying. Available.

Proppers

Aaron and Joshua didn’t hold Moses’ purse, but they were available for his moment. As hand proppers.

God had given his man a job. The Israelites were in a battle, and Moses was to lift high the staff of God. The battle raged, Moses held up his hands with the staff, and the Israelites prevailed.

But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword.

Exodus 17:12-13 (ESV)

No special skill set is required to be a propper or a holder. Just a willingness to stand by to strengthen and steady until the sun sets on the moment and the work is done. Whether we hold the purse or the hands of a sister or brother, we’re joining in God’s activity.

Come Alongside

I’m okay if “can I hold your purse?” never becomes the catchphrase I imagine it could be. But will you pray with me for God to open our eyes to purse-holding opportunities around us? And for the courage to ask a friend to prop up our hands when we’re weary?

You and I live in community in this world we travel. I hope to see you along the way! And if I do, I’ll be glad to hold your purse. Will you hold mine?