Lawrence Hall, HSG
When the Rescuers
Stood Down
When the rescuers in
Surfside, Florida were ordered to stand down last Saturday night they left their
prayers, their desperate hopes, and their bitter tears upon those troubled
rocks where they had poured out their love. They poured out their very selves
in searching for the living and for the lost. After they were commanded to back
away so that the explosives for demolition could be placed, they were empty for
a time.
The unfallen parts of the
building were unstable and could have fallen at any moment. Even so, the search
and rescue squads worked under the shadow of that menace for ten days and
nights. With the coming tropical storm and its strong winds a difficult but
necessary decision was made to pull them off the line and reduce the remnants
in a controlled fashion.
What was left was brought
down late Sunday night: concrete and steel, toys and dolls, Mama’s pictures, kindergarten
art made from beans glued to paper, letters from friends, ‘phones that won’t
ring anymore, high school yearbooks, shopping lists, hiking boots, crucifixes,
menorahs, eyeglasses, that lost sock behind the washing machine, souvenir
coffee mugs from vacation trips, fountain pens, walking sticks, all that toilet
paper stored in the covid-time, the apple pie in the refrigerator, lesson
plans, books, spare change, Army medals, clocks, thermometers, flashlights, beach
towels, flip-flops, concert tickets, keys to doors that will never again be
opened to friends, unfinished poems, and unfinished lives.
As soon the explosions were
over, the building fully down, and the smoke blown away by the wind, the
rescuers returned through the floodlights to search those desolate hills of
rubble because their hearts are in that wreckage. They will not leave anyone
behind. They are first responders. That is what they do. That is who they are.
Have not I commanded
thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed:
for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
-Joshua
1:9
-30-
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