Last week, my voice decided not to show up. Yet it was pretty simple to gain access to medicine and I could drive to my GP in two minutes if I really wanted.

It’s hard to imagine not having that kind of access to a medical professional. It’s also hard to imagine not knowing basic hygiene knowledge, having learnt it from a young age.

I think what gets me the most about people living in poverty and health education, is when I hear a story of a mother who has tried to help her sick child and has unintentionally done the worst thing possible, thinking she was helping. It actually makes me feel sick.

Such people need a doctor to make them well again and teach them how to care for themselves and their family. What a gift! Literally, lifesaving.

At one point in his adult life, Jesus took the analogy of a doctor to explain what he was doing:

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

At Christmas time we see Jesus as a baby in a manger; and that’s fine. Yet, in this analogy he is more like a medical professional being helicoptered into a disaster zone with a viral epidemic: sin.

Recently on the news, I heard about a measles outbreak in Samoa. The entire country is being vaccinated against the disease to stop the spread. However, some people are yet to be inoculated due to the vaccine running out by the time they reach the clinics.

Jesus is the vaccine against the effects of sin. And the vaccine never runs out, it’s available for all eternity. What an amazing gift of ‘health care’ to receive this Christmas.

Business; School; Gardening; Health: That’s how you build a village.

Jesus: that’s how you become spiritually healthy. I hope you do.

Yours in sickness and in health,

Alison