True story//
A woman who was very unwell sat in the waiting room of the drop-in doctors waiting her turn to see someone. While she was waiting, she noticed a young lady come in with a small children, both of them clearly unwell and clearly needing to be seen by a doctor. Both women exchanged pleasantries while they waited.
The young mother was slightly apprehensive, then after a while she got up and went to the front desk and spoke to the receptionist there. When she came back the young mother said to the other women that she couldn't afford the price of seeing the doctor for herself so she had cancelled her appointment but waited so that her child could be seen.
Ever since I was told that story, I have been thinking about it. It's been haunting me. This is so not right on so many levels. But it's what we do as mothers isn't it? Sacrifice for our children, sacrifice so they can eat, so they can be clothed, so they can have the best that we can give them....really it we wouldn't have it any other way. But still, it shouldn't be this way.....not having access to help that we so clearly need. I know I don't know the details of this woman's life and why we she couldn't afford the fee to see the doctor and get the medical care she needed...BUT I do know that is she couldn't afford the fee there are bound to be other areas that she struggled to afford. I also know that we have no right to judge as to why she was in the position. None at all.
This makes me so sad, so angry. My heart breaks for her and others like her. Probably more so because I too like many others have been in that exact same position at one time or another. You do your best yet it's not enough. Your role as a mother (or a father) is to provide for your children, to love and care for them, to nurture them, to teach them and to equip them. But how can you when you yourself are lacking, when you are sick or in pain and can't get the relief or care you need. Or you just haven't the support you and kindness you need, that you deserve. How can one be expected to nurture our children, our legacy, the next generation well in this state?
What would you have done or said to her? Would you have done something/anything? I know many people would probably say "oh I would have paid for her" But would you have REALLY? REALLY?
I read a saying not long ago
"Are you more concerned with your standard of living than being concerned for another living?" - Francis Chan
This struck me to the core....how often have I been guilty of this? Numerous times...even when we were in a time of abundance and still even now when we certainly aren't. Thoughts of "how much will this cost me?" or "How will I make the food stretch if I give?" or "What if I don't have enough for me and my family?" Sometimes those thoughts win out and I don't act....and then I think about it for days. And yet the times that I do act....there is always enough, we always survive and it always works out. Sure, there is a pinch we feel, or we have to miss out on something but its never major.
I don't know how to fix this problem, but I know that we can't rely on the change of government to fix it. Surely they may help somewhat but it's up to us to do. For we have been commissioned to do this.....this is our role, this is what we must be doing...not just for others sake but for our own also.
One of my favourite passages in the bible is
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.: Isaiah 58:6-11
I pray for this young mother and others like her. I pray that she will encounter the kindness of strangers, that people will enter her life that will care, will help and will provide. I pray that she has everything she needs so that she can continue to be the best mother to her children that she can be.....will you join me?
