I recently spotted a bug clinging to the ceiling above my bed — and was tempted to run screaming from the house.
You see, growing up in Miami, I regarded palmetto bugs as the personification of evil. When my sister and I spotted one scuttling up a wall, we ran to my father, who bravely battled the beast with his trusty broom.
After I married, my husband became the heroic slayer of creepy-crawlies that invaded our house. All I had to do was yell, “Oh, my gosh, a big bug!” and he came running.
Now that he’s gone, I’d like to report I’ve taken up his mantle, but that would be a lie. That night, I stared desperately at the ceiling while pondering what to do.
I called my friend Cathy, who lives nearby and has two teenage boys. “Are your boys afraid of bugs?” I queried.
“Not at all!” she laughed.
I quickly explained my dilemma and she didn’t hesitate. “I’ll send Jude over.”
Awaiting the boy’s arrival, I watched in horror as the bug catapulted from the ceiling, landed squarely in my bed and vamoosed beneath the covers.
When I heard a tap at the front window, I rushed down the hall to welcome Jude, who had hurried over barefoot to help me. In seconds, this young hero located the bug, caught it in a jar and took it outside.
A few days later, Hurricane Harvey pounded Houston and scores of people became heroes overnight.
Awestruck, I watched videos showing men steering their boats through the rushing waters to help stranded strangers.
Four men were stuck inside a bakery for days, but had electricity and 4,000 pounds of flour, so they churned out countless loaves of bread to distribute to the community.
A doctor traveled by canoe and fire truck through flooded streets to get to the hospital, where a teenager needed emergency surgery.
Two brothers from Dallas drove 200 miles to use their boat to rescue people. “I didn’t feel right, laying on the couch and watching Houston suffer,” one said. “It almost felt like a sin.”
Where do these selfless impulses come from? What makes a hero?
The Old Testament tells us God created mankind “in his own image,” while the New Testament assures us “God is love.”
To me, this means there’s a spark of divinity in every human heart. Yes, it’s true that ugly conflicts between political groups get the lion’s share of media coverage — until a disaster hits, and we see people rallying to help each other.
Call it charity or love, the end result is a selfless desire to give others a hand. Race, politics, age and religion don’t matter when the water is rising and people need rescuing. As one of the brothers from Dallas put it, “We love seeing the rednecks and the city folks come together.”
For Christians, the ultimate hero is Jesus Christ, who connected selflessness with love by saying, “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Sometimes it’s a hurricane, sometimes it’s a fire, sometimes it’s a terrorist attack. When catastrophes hit, there are people willing to risk their own comfort and safety to help others.
Heroes come in all shapes, colors and sizes. They may be police officers, firefighters, nurses, doctors, emergency medical technicians — and ordinary guys with boats.
They might also be a teenage boy who shows up at a moment’s notice to chase down a bug. In every case, heroes are a powerful and quiet testimony to God’s presence in our world today.
