Numbers 7:6-10: a reflection

When Moses distributes wagons and oxen to help the Levites transport the tabernacle, most of the clans receive them, two wagons here, four there, to ease the heavy load. But the Kohathites, who were responsible for the ark and the most holy things, receive no wagons at all, because, the text says, the service of the sanctuary belonged to them; they carried it on their shoulders. The holiest burden was not to be loaded onto a cart. It had to be carried, personally, by hand.

Notice the distinction. For much of the work, a wagon was fine, a way to make the load lighter and more efficient. But the most sacred things were to be borne on the shoulders of those set apart for them, carried personally, at cost, not offloaded onto a convenient mechanism. Some holy responsibilities, this suggests, are not meant to be mechanized or delegated away; they must be carried by hand, with the weight felt on your own shoulders.

There is wisdom here for our own lives. Many tasks can and should be made efficient, offloaded, streamlined. But some of the holiest responsibilities, the raising of children, the tending of a marriage, the care of the dying, the personal work of prayer and love, cannot be handed off to a cart. They must be carried personally, on your own shoulders, with the weight felt. Do not try to mechanize what is meant to be borne by hand. Some burdens are holy precisely because you carry them yourself, at cost. Take the sacred load onto your own shoulders.