“God is so good and has blessed us so much!”
Thus ended the email from a jubilant mother, who was bringing me up to date on her baby’s heart condition – the surgery, the recovery, the near perfect healing and the extremely optimistic prognosis for the future.
I was happy for the healing and the recovery, but is it really fair to call this God blessing them? I mean, they live in an affluent area, both of the child’s parents have college degrees, they have health insurance, they live 30 minutes from one of the premier medical facilities in the country and have a wide circle of friends and family. Can you really imagine that this could have went down differently? Maybe this is just life for them – the way things work in their world.
Just like for my friend Dave*, the way life works is to be given the run-around at three different clinics over a period of four months because he blacks out when he bends over at the waist. Dave does not live in an affluent area – quite the opposite, in fact. And even though he does live within 30 minutes of that same world class health care facility, he is not allowed in, because he does not have health insurance. He normally earns his own living, but landscaping is hard when you keep blacking out.
When I saw Dave a few weeks ago, he was upbeat. He was drinking a cup of coffee with me at our Sunday morning thing we do. I ask how his health is, and if they have figured this thing out.
“Heck no! I don’t think they know what they are doing,” he says. “I am tired of it, to tell you the truth. I just want to get back to working – I am having to pass up some big jobs. But really, I don’t complain. God is good. I have not went hungry, lots of people care about me. I am truly blessed.”
to be continued…
* as always, names changed for privacy purposes.
