The Firefighter Who Ran Back In

On March 12, 2018, firefighter Chris Hanley of Ladder Company 9 in Worcester, Massachusetts, responded to a three-alarm blaze in a condemned apartment building. The structure had been marked for demolition — no one was supposed to be inside. But a neighbor screamed that a homeless man had been squatting on the second floor. Without hesitation, Hanley charged back through a doorway already buckling with heat. He found the man unconscious near a window, dragged him down a collapsing stairwell, and carried him out just before the roof gave way.

The man Hanley rescued had a warrant out for his arrest. He had stolen from neighbors, vandalized property, and had been evicted from three shelters. When reporters asked Hanley why he risked his life for someone like that, he said simply, "He was dying. That was enough."

Paul writes in Romans 5 that very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person — though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love in this: while we were still sinners, while we were still hostile, still squatting in the wreckage of our own making, Christ died for us. We were not cleaned up first. We were not worthy first. We were simply dying, and for the God who is Love, that was enough. The rescue came not because of who we were, but because of who He is.