Living in the Spirit
Light a Candle for Children
September 15, 2014
Scripture Reading: Exodus 16:2-15
The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’ —Exodus 16:2-3
In our society we waste a lot of really good energy avoiding the realities that we face. We want to have our cake and eat it too very much like the Israelites did. Our government reflects that we expect the government to solve problems while at the same time we rant about the size of government being too big and our taxes too high. What results is that instead of offering services that are proactive and that recognize that our citizens are our greatest resource, we provide emergency services that are too little too late and most likely cost us more in real dollars, but certainly in human capital, than we would have spent had we address issues before they got out of hand.
The mother’s seven year old son had had a drippy nose and lots of “colds” from birth. The family had never had insurance coverage and rarely sought health care unless it was an emergency. It just cost too much. Anyway, all kids have runny noses from time to time. The family had a marginal income and were even in the process of buying their home on a rent-to-buy contract. The father, got into some trouble and ended up in prison, but the mother fairly quickly got a good paying job. Nine dollars an hour was better than minimum wage. There were no benefits though, no insurance. The son had one of his worst colds ever. Mom had missed worked for two days already. On the third day the son seemed so lifeless when the mother touch his head and found he was burning up. Mom raced him to the emergency room where he was immediately placed in ICU. She called her boss to say she would not be in again that night. He said, “If you don’t come in tonight, don’t bother to come back at all.”
The boy had such a severe sinus infection that it had broken through to his brain, it was touch and go for some time, but at least with no income the family now qualified for Medicaid for him. Ten years later and six major surgeries, the son is doing great. He was diagnosed with serious allergies for which he is now being treated. The Mom lost her home. She could barely make the payments after her husband went to prison anyway.
We, like the Israelites fleeing Egypt, must pull ourselves together and deal with the realities of our world, in a proactive disciplined manner until all God’s children are doing at least OK and on target to be the people God created them to be.
Oklahoma Fact: in 2011, 10% of children had no health care coverage* (The vast majority of these children come from working families who would have qualified for Medicaid had Oklahoma participated in the expanded coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act)
Prayer: Merciful God, take the energy we expend in complaining and turn it into action that will enable all of your children to become fully the persons you created them to be. Amen.