Bridges

The community here is still reeling from Wednesday's bridge collapse.  We're grateful for the miraculously low number of fatalities and the courage displayed by those involved in the rescue and ongoing recovery efforts.  As Rob's post noted, people seemed almost nonchalant about incredible feats of bravery.  One young man interviewed on the local news who escaped the wreckage only to return and help others out of the rubble kept telling the reporter, "I just did what I was supposed to do."

Many of us here spent a good part of Wednesday evening and Thursday responding to phone calls and e-mails from family and friends all over the country checking up on us.  Within the community, too, friends were calling, e-mailing, checking to make sure everyone they knew was safe.  After a day of connecting with people over the collapse of a physical bridge, I was really struck last night by the metaphorical bridge referenced in a little introductory passage to Psalm 25 in Magnificat:

If the Lord rescues me from the snare of my faults, should I not extend the same hand of rescue to my neighbor?  Resentment, grudges, retaliation do not help the one who offends me. They merely confirm the breach between us.  Bridge-building is costly, as the cross demonstrates, but the people stranded on both banks are all freed by the bridge.