What is the connection between wrinkles and praying?

We called her “aunt bobby” though she was not related to us in any way. But that is how I knew her. And Aunt Bobby had more wrinkles on her body than any human being I had ever met. There were the wrinkles around her nose from sniffing all the things that she was good at baking. There were wrinkles around her eyes from the mischievous twinkle that one would find there. Heck, her wrinkles even had wrinkles. But it was the wrinkles on her hands that most fascinated me the last time I saw her.

Because the wrinkles there were formed from hands that had been often at prayer. When her hands were clasped together in prayer, it was as if all the wrinkles lined up. A rosary would ‘just fit there’ – as if it were an extension of those wrinkles. The pages of her worn prayer book would fit in the wrinkles of her fingers, as if they had been melded together. And she was my mom and dad’s prayer warrior – whenever they really needed something, they would turn to Aunt Bobby and ask her to pray with and for them. And like Aaron and Hur, she would support their hands held up in prayer with her own – and the battle would be God’s. Aunt Bobby. A woman who held the arms of the Kempf family up by her own prayer and her own support. What I like to believe about her wrinkles is that each one was etched there as part of her prayer. When she would pray for someone, (and she often did) that person and their need would etch itself upon Aunt Bobby in the form of a wrinkle. She was an old 87 (I think) the last time I saw her – in the church at Epiphany. I was told she was visiting the church, and so I popped in from the rectory, and there she was, finishing her prayer before the statue that honored Mary. When she was done, and not a minute before, then she turned, and acknowledging me with a nod, finished the sentence that was in her head. “I don’t know why God keeps me here so long. He knows that I am ready to go home. (long sigh) But I guess there is still someone who needs my prayers… (longer sigh) So I just keep on praying. And another wrinkle would form, somewhere on that ancient body of hers. And another ‘Moses’ would have their arms supported during their struggle and difficulty.

It is an amazing image, we hear from the book of Exodus. Look in the history books. You won’t find Amelek. But Amelek becomes the symbol of all that Israel must stand against but can’t on their own power. We find that the Israelites have the better of the fight for as long as Moses was able to hold the “staff of God” upraised in his hands. Think about it. Hands lifted up like this. Holding a staff. Not a whole lot else you can do with them, is there? Except wait. Except rely on God to fill them. Except to trust that the one to whom you make supplication will hear and answer your need. Yet sometimes that becomes difficult. Life throws us a curve, and we find it hard to keep our hope alive, hard to keep praying and trusting and loving God. Like Moses, tired of the praying, tired of the leadership, tired of keeping his heart burning with enough love to carry the nation alone. He finds his arms and his heart weighed down. Aaron and Hur see this, and they come to his aid as prayer warriors. They ‘help Moses to hold his prayer aloft’ as surely as they held his arms up high. As long as Israel was reminded that their help was from God – it was enough. As long as Israel knew that Moses and Aaron and Hur were supporting them in prayer, their faith enabled them to carry the day.

Persistent prayer, offered in faith, brings about the victory. Persistent prayer, coupled by the woman’s insistence each day before the unjust judge, brings about a favorable result. Prayer warriors. People who hold our arms up when we don’t know how to pray or lose heart, or lack the courage or strength to go it alone. Aunt Bobby’s who are for us a pillar of strength and support and love.

So, for you, who are the people who help you to keep your hands uplifted in prayer? Who are the ones, like Aaron and Hur, who hold you up physically, and enable you to keep praying and keep being faithful, when the strength is not in you.
And for whom are you being called to pray these days? Whose story, what person, what situation nags at your awareness and calls you to be more and more faithful in prayer? Spend time holding their arms up in prayer.
Maybe there is a connection between wrinkles and praying. Or gray hair and praying. Because I have more these days then ever before. Know that they are there for you. But even more than that, know that there is one here before us to tonight who has his arms lifted high in prayer for us. In fact, he has his arms nailed open in prayer for you and I. Nailed open to always intercede for us…