Rescuing Families

After devastating Houston, Hurricane Harvey moved back out to sea to reenergize. Then it came back ashore and dumped two more feet of rain. Watersheds were already over-flowing. But now they were asked to take enough water out to sea to charge Niagara Falls for 15 days.

There was a major problem. Between the draining rainwater and the sea lay Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas. Neither community was expecting what would happen next.

Perfect conditions set the stage for a flood which developed so quickly there was no opportunity to evacuate. Soon thousands of residents found themselves cut off by the rising water. Thousands of people were unable to drive to safety. Only the “Cajun Navy” could navigate the streets in flat-bottom boats to ferry the stranded to safety

But some were inaccessible, even to boats. Two Helicopter Sea Combat Squadrons (HSC), 7 and 28, jumped into action. Between them, six marine-outfitted Nighthawk helicopters (MH-60s) began to pluck people from homes that were quickly being inundated.

A day after performing 227 rescues in the Houston area, they were faced with thousands of people cut off by a surge of rainwater making its way to the sea.

This is the news that greeted us when we turned on the TV last Wednesday afternoon. Most captivating was the live footage from Trace Gallagher of Fox News Network. He and his cameraman were riding aboard one of the MH-60 helicopters, filming the dramatic rescue of a Beaumont family.

After a diver located the stranded family, they hoisted the mother and a small daughter aboard the war machine. Through tears, the little girl began to ask about the family dog. But viewers knew that the soldiers were focused on rescuing people, not animals.

The basket was lowered again and repeated, emphatic hand-signals from crew members to their swimmer below communicated a clear order. Not only did they load her older brother, but the dog as well. Tears turned to smiles that they dried the dog and checked for injuries.

But the work was not done yet. Asking if there was anybody else still on the ground, the son shouted, “My dad!” Soon the basket was being lowered again to retrieve the patriarch of the family who had remained on the ground seeing to the rescue of his wife, children and pet before allowing himself to be hoisted from their destroyed home.

These ten minutes of footage, and the background commentary by Trace Gallagher, have occupied my mind since. There is much more here than an exciting rescue story. Here is a picture of what is right with the world, and a road map to rescue us out of the flood enveloping us.

Notice the order of the rescue. First on the chopper was the mother and female child, second came the male child and dog, lastly, the father of the family. Obviously, someone had a hand in deciding this order. We don’t know who, but whether it was the Navy diver, the father, or some unknown agent, it is deeply significant.

Chivalry is not dead. Women and children are still pushed to the head of the line by the men who love them. This may not happen as consistently and often as it once did. But it still happens. Subtly and quietly throughout our land it is happening every day. This ought to give us some cause to cheer up.

A second detail was also unmistakable in the middle of the chaos.  After the soldiers pulled the father aboard to complete the rescue, the mother made the sign of the cross upon herself and prayed. With a single gesture, the entire scene was bathed in divine lighting.

Right there, live on national TV, the invocation of Christ offered an unmistakably Christian interpretation of what we were seeing. At least that’s the way the family was interpreting it. No matter how harassed, hated, or marginalized, Christianity is still vibrant and relevant in everyday lives.

Understood in this light, we would have reason to believe that the order of rescue noted above was neither choreographed nor random. In light of the cross, a husband and father placing his wife and children before himself is not following some mechanistic requirement. This is simply the natural flow of love. As Jesus said before He Himself died for his disciples, “He who would be greatest among you, let him be as the least, and he that would be the ruler, let him be the servant.”

Notice, third, the orders given to the chopper crew. Trace Gallagher reported that they had been commanded to keep families together. They were even commanded to accept the rescue of family pets when requested. This is a departure from the standing orders of previous rescue operations.

Rescue operations for previous hurricanes did not give attention to this detail. The focus was exclusively upon the rescue of individuals, apart from any consideration of family. As a result, some families were inadvertently broken apart by their rescuers and spent hours, days, and weeks unable to find one another in the chaotic aftermath. Though not intentional, ignoring family togetherness added to their misery.

But not this time. Someone in the chain of command had taken note that family integrity is important. They learned that while the rescue of individuals is essential, it is not the only thing. Human beings have two primary needs, they need protection of their individuality and, at the same time, protection of family integrity.

Families are the basic building block of any society. Any real help for the individual must also help the family. For too long we have been presented with a choice between valuing individuals or valuing the social order. The first leads to radical individualism, the second to collectivism. Both are wrong.

It is a false choice to emphasize one of these aspects of humanity at the expense of the other. But this false dichotomy is driving much of our political conversation these days. The answer lies not in an either/or, but in a both/and.

Every individual is of inestimable value; no single person can be sacrificed for the whole. But, at the same time, people are not essentially individuals. Relationship is also essential to who we are. To divide humanity into a million individuals is to destroy an essential part of humanity. To honor and uphold the natural bonds of husband and wife, mother and child, father and child, brother and sister, is to make every individual stronger and more complete.

One of the great benefits of western culture is that we are the inheritors of more than 1700 years of profound understanding and unpacking of this theme. For centuries, Christian philosophers, theologians, and scientists have noticed our double need for both individuality and family unity. More than that, they have seen that it is nothing less than an embodied way of expressing the nature of God Himself, who is at the same time both One, and Three.

Our cultural heritage has many such insights capable of rescuing us from the swirling waters of individualism and collectivism. The next time you see communists and radical individualists clashing in the streets, close your eyes and remember the rescue of families in Beaumont.

Not only does this sight gladden our hearts and combat the constant negativity, it also offers a vision for reclaiming a fundamental truth about human thriving. Guided by the light of this truth, we can see a clear path towards reconciling these two opposing worldviews, and rescuing, not only one, but all families.