Devotional from Pastor Dave September 21, 2023

Like many of you, I’ve been following with interest the story of the 81-year-old Chattanooga native and Signal Mountain resident retired Army Captain Larry Taylor, who received the nation’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor, earlier this month, for his “conspicuous gallantry” in piloting his Cobra helicopter and rescuing four fellow soldiers trapped by enemy fire outside a village in Vietnam on the evening of June 18, 1968.

He accomplished this daring rescue at great risk to his own life and the life of his wingman, as they were running out of both fuel and ammunition. There was no room for the soldiers inside the helicopter, so they hung onto the helicopter skids and rocket pods as Taylor carried them to safety. “That’s just what you do,” he said, “because you depend on each other to keep each other alive.”

Taylor’s story reminds me of a story that three of the four Gospels tell of a paralyzed man Jesus heals. Mark tells us that there was no more room in the place where Jesus was staying, so the man’s four friends dug a hole in the roof and lowered him down on a man into Jesus’ presence. And the scriptures say that “when Jesus saw their faith” – not the man’s faith, but the faith of his four friends – he said to the man, “your sins are forgiven” (Matthew 9:2, Mark 2:5, Luke 5:20).

Taylor was one man who was instrumental in saving the lives of four fellow soldiers. The Gospels tell of four men who were instrumental in saving the life of one of their friends.

Sometimes in our lives, we may be the one behind the controls of the chopper, and at other times, we may be one of the ones trapped by enemy fire in the rice patty. Sometimes in our lives, we’re one of the guys digging a hole in the roof to try to find a way to get our friend to Jesus, and at other times, we may be the man on the mat.

Who are your rooftop friends? Who are the people in your lives who would drop whatever they are doing at a moment’s notice and move heaven and earth and shingles and studs to get you the help you need, especially if that means getting you to Jesus? Will you reach out to them today or this week to thank them?

And who might consider you to be their rooftop friend? Who is so important to you in your life that you might even be willing to risk your own life to save theirs?

Not because you want a medal of honor, but because that’s just what we do for each other. We look out for each other. We care for each other. We depend on each other to keep each other alive.