“We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey, waved goodbye, and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.'”

–President Ronald Reagan’s Challenger eulogy (January 28, 1986)

Seminal moments. We’ve all experienced them, the number depending on how long we’ve been alive. The attack on Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, V-J Day, President Kennedy’s assassination, the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, the September 11 attacks. Moments when time stood still and people recall where they were and what they were doing at the time.

We just experienced another. Tens of thousands of fans in the stadium and millions of television viewers watched Damar Hamlin drop dead on a football field. Well, technically, he wasn’t dead, but he went into cardiac arrest. In the blink of an eye, he went from making a good football play to his heart stopping. Certain death without the resuscitative efforts of a medical team.

In scope, Mr. Hamlin’s event doesn’t compare to those I mentioned above. But to have it play out in real time was, for lack of a better term, unnerving. Death is often a frequent and unwelcome visitor. But to witness it brings its startling reality into full view.

Devin Willock played on the University of Georgia’s national championship team. On January 9th, he experienced the thrill of being a national champion. Five days later, he died in an automobile accident on the streets of Athens, Georgia. Tragic–more so than Hamlin’s cardiac arrest–yet not played out on national television or known to many outside the town limits of Athens. We know we’re not promised tomorrow.

What made Mr. Hamlin’s event so remarkable wasn’t so much its visibility, but the nation’s visceral reaction to it. Did you see it? On the field of a publicly owned stadium, players dropped to their knees and prayed…and no one was fined or suspended. Nor did anyone criticize that response. The game’s announcers said, “All we can do now is pray.” Later, on an ESPN telecast, the studio team stopped their chatter and dropped their heads to pray.

Across the nation, people prayed. Were you one of them? At that moment, Mr. Hamlin’s political persuasions, gender identity, religious affiliation, and color of his skin, mattered not one whit. What mattered was a young man was fighting for his life, and the nation’s response was to turn to God.

As evidenced by the quote above, President Reagan’s response to the Challenger explosion was to invoke God’s name, and suggest that those astronauts, now free from an earthly existence, were destined to a place with Him.

Clearly, we are still a nation of faith. People can deny God, or demand His removal from the public arena, but when events occur that make it too hard for us to stand, we fall to our knees…and turn to God. Different faiths and different religions, yes, but one God, whose planet we all share and on which, as President Kennedy once said, “we all breathe the same air.”

Almost certainly, some who prayed and pleaded were not people of faith. But just like the faithless soldier in a foxhole with enemy fire raining down on him, even the non-believer turns to God.

One more thing. Damar Hamlin was quietly known for his devotion to his parents and his toy drive fund to benefit underprivileged children. Not bad traits for a young man playing at the highest level of competitive sports. Prior to his accident, his toy fund was nearing $3,000, surpassing his modest goal of $2,500. Since the accident, donations have poured in, and the fund is now approaching nine million dollars.

Isn’t it wonderful that his greatest challenge now is not fighting for his life, but figuring out how to distribute nine million dollars worth of toys?

So, all this to say, yes, America is still a nation of faith, and we are a people characterized by concern and generosity.