Do You Hear What I Hear?

Said the night wind to the little lamb--
Do you see what I see?
Way up in the sky, little lamb?

Do you see what I see?

The star, the star dancing in the night
with a tail as big as a kite,
with a tail as big as a kite.

Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy--
Do you hear what I hear?
Ringing though the sky, shepherd boy?
Do you hear what I hear?
The song, the song high above the trees
with a voice as big as the sea,
with a voice as big as the sea

Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king--
Do you know what I know?
In your palace warm, mighty king,
Do you know what I know?
A Child, a Child shivers in the cold,
let us bring Him silver and gold,
let us bring Him silver and gold

Said the king to the people everywhere--
Listen to what I say!
Pray for peace, people everywhere
Listen to what I say!
The Child, the Child sleeping in the night,
He will bring us goodness and light,
He will bring us goodness and light.

I absolutely love this song--at all times of the year, really. (Especially when it is sung by Mac Powell of Third Day...).

I am still trying to wrap my mind around the concept of the working poor. While I have known theoretically that these people exist, and while I have thought about the concept before, never have I been faced with it so blatantly than while living here. I think it is easy for people (including myself) in the "middle class" (let's not even mention the "upper class" here) to forget that the working poor exist (let me reiterate--myself included). These people work hard--usually physical labor--and yet do not make a living wage. We get caught up in living, in trying to make our own ends meet and forget that there are many people who cannot make ends meet, regardless of how they manage their money.

On Tuesday night a man knocked on Luke and my door and asked us if we had any money. His wife has diabetes and needed medication and he doesn't get paid until next week. This isn't the first time he's asked us for money, and we know that he will pay us back as soon as we gets his paycheck (he has before), and so we trust him. The paying back really isn't an issue anyway, which we stated once, but after thinking about it I think it might have been a bad idea; this man had to humble himself enough to come knock on our door, the least we could have done was protected his pride by assuming that he can and will pay us back. This man works for the apartment company that Luke and I rent from...after hearing how much he makes an hour Luke and I did a little bit of figuring. At the very most, our monthly rent only pays for one hour of his work a month...and he definitely does much more for us than just an hour of work a month (that is assuming that he only gets paid for 40 hours a week, even though we're pretty sure he works more than that--maybe we should cut the Gelman Company some slack...). After expenses he can't make it until the end of the month.

And he's not the only one. There are women in the organization where I work who, though they hold down full-time positions, will sometimes catch a charge for renegading (the term used for a woman who used to work with a pimp, gets rescued from a trafficking situation or kicked out because she is pregnant, old or sick, and therefore now works in the line of prostitution on her own) because they need to make money and it is the only other way they know how (let alone all of the other emotional trauma or mental disorders they suffer from). The concept of working poor should not exist.

As I think about it all I get frustrated and angry. When I think about the lyrics above--about goodness and light, about peace brought by a baby named Jesus who would grow into a man and save the world--I wonder where the goodness is for these men and women, do they get lost in it all? But then I remember that this babe--this man named Jesus was born of a peasant, the son of a carpenter, He was a refugee, the first to worship Him were shepherds, His closest friends were fishermen and tax collectors, He hung out with lepers and women who had been prostituted...this Jesus came for the working poor, for the non-working poor, the forgotten, the untouched.

There is peace, goodness and light for all. There is hope and love regardless of capitalism or socialism, of republicans or democrats...there was a man named Jesus whose very essence was love and peace and He was--no, IS--available to all, regardless of socio-economic status, race or any other of the imaginary barriers we use to separate ourselves...He spoke of justice...of loving your neighbor as yourself (does it really get any more just than that?).

And He calls us to the same way of love and justice. Do you hear what I hear?