by Craig Mayes on May 29th, 2010

I live across the street from NYU Medical Center- right where the ambulances bring patients to the ER. As you can imagine, sirens are a part of our experience pretty much day and night- so much so that after two years I don’t really hear them or pay attention to them any more.

Yesterday however, there was one siren after another after another down on 1^st Avenue- drawing me to the window of my 20^th floor apartment. There were a lot of sirens on the street outside of a construction site related to the new subway being built. I grabbed my video camera and caught the drama of rescuing an injured worker from the shaft going down to the tunnel. Check this out:

NYPD Rescue from Craig Mayes on Vimeo.

 

The reason for al the sirens was that 21 rescue vehicles were on the scene- fire trucks, EMS, police…21 in all! It turned 1^st Ave into a parking lot. I could only imagine a major cave-in or explosion or something in the tunnel far under the street- some huge catastrophe that would summon 21 rescue response vehicles and probably at least 50 firemen, police, and EMS workers.

After the first man was pulled from the shaft, placed on the stretcher and taken to an ambulance, I expected them to go down for the rest. I was surprised when everyone packed up and drove away. 21 for 1???

In the hours that followed I reflected on the ratio. It seemed excessive. As far as I could see, only about 6-7 workers had any ands on involvement in the operation.  I wondered what the price tag (paid by my taxes) was for going after this one person.  I have to confess that it seemed really wasteful and unnecessary. Of course, I know nothing about these matters, and I don’t know what was actually known when the call for help went out. It’s easy to be a critic when your ignorant! But then my thoughts went to another place.

I wonder if the efforts would have looked excessive for the injured person’s family? What value would I place on that one life if it was my son, daughter, father, mother? I would want as much help as possible- sharing resources and strategies and words of encouragement as they undertook the operation. Then my thoughts went to another place.

Nearly two years ago a group of people calling themselves “Communitas” came to NYC- guess how many we were? 21. Why did we come? A rescue operation of sorts- to share with people the love and joy found in Jesus and to bring life and hope to individuals and to our community. Sometimes, I confess, I have been discouraged by the pace of our growth. It has felt like 21 response vehicles reaching out and embracing just one person.  .

What price do we place on one life? Maybe the ratio of 21-1isn’t so excessive after all. After all, as Peter wrote, God does not want anyone to perish.