Help getting in the water. . .

Not long ago I received the following note from a friend I've known for a long time. He is a father. His oldest son is battling cancer of the brain.

I found his note moving. His awareness of others around him, even as he assists his own son in the fight of his life, is inspiring.

As I read his words and got in touch with his heart, it occured to me that health care reform is all about making sure everyone has what they need to "get in the pool."

John 5 tells about the healing at the pool of Bethesda. I know exactly what that must have looked like. When you sit in the lobby of the MD Anderson Brain and Spine Cancer Institute, you see men and women, boys and girls of all ages and races from all over the world professing every belief imaginable. They are being pushed in wheel chairs by family. They are being helped on canes and crutches by friends. They all have in common a deeply held belief that they can be healed if they can just get into the “pool”. How sad to have waited 38 years because he didn’t have someone to help him into the pool.

I now know some of what the Father in Luke 15 felt: “… we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

A good way to spend part of this day might involve my spending time remembering those who still need a hand toward the healing they desire so very much.