Health Care and Christmas

Thinking about the Senate as we are on the cusp of perhaps doing something about helping those 47 million people without insurance, I recall the words Aristides said when he described the Christians to the Roman Emperor Hadrian.

"They love one another. They never fail to help widows; they save orphans from those who would hurt them. If they have something they give freely to the man (or woman) who has nothing; if they see a stranger, they take him (or her) home, and are happy, as though he (or she) were a real brother or sister). They don't consider themselves brothers (and sisters) in the usual sense, but brothers (and sisters) instead through the Spirit, in God."

This is a far cry from all those Christians who have raised their troubled voices these last few months about my insurance, my taxes, my rights, and on and on it goes. We may just turn a corner that no President or political group in this country has been able to do--providing health care to all--or a whole lot more than we do now. This whole effort has been attacked with a great deal of money and power. Much of what many of us dreamed about health care has been whittled down. But we have to begin somewhere--and on the eve of Christmas I do hope we will remember the One whose birthday we celebrate and the love and care he showed to all.