For healing, for sacrificing: Thank you

Dear health care workers:

We see you.

We see you once again opening your doors wide to care for yet another wave of a global pandemic.

We see you continuing to open your hands to provide comfort and hope to people in their darkest hours.

We see you once again taking on additional burdens, extra measures of precaution, and added layers of fear and fatigue.

And sadly, we also see the increasing hostility toward you from some who fail to demonstrate the deep appreciation and reverence for your service that our community at large feels for you. In the face of this incivility, we see you turning your cheek. Your resilience, courage, compassion and extraordinary skill shine brightly over these dark times and divisive actions.

While you may see a patient for a moment, we see people across South Texas whose lives and families are forever transformed because of what you do every day in the line of service.

We see grandparents wrapping arms tightly

around their grandchildren once again, safely because they received vaccines. We see smiling eyes and tears of joy behind your masks as families crippled by fear watch their loved ones leave your care in better health. We see the sweetest moments of life made possible by your exceptional care and adaptive ingenuity — babies born, weddings held, cancer bells rung.

So, on behalf of every person touched by your healing hands, thank you for seeing us.

Thank you for seeing every patient as the special and unique child of God that they are. Thank you for stepping up, once again, to provide a safe haven in the storm. And thank you for the sacrifices you make every day that bring healing and hope to those who so desperately need it.

We pray this blessing over each of you: May you find rest and reassurance as you faithfully serve the people of our city and our state with remarkable love. We stand with you.

Jaime Wesolowski is president and CEO of Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas Inc., a faith-based, not-for-profit organization working to create access to care for low-income, uninsured families through services, strategic grant-making and community partnerships in 74 counties.