Isn't it strange how before 2001 this date in history was nothing particularly significant? Remember when you were in grade school and you got to the history lesson about JFK's assassination? Or Martin Luther King Jr.? My teacher had me come home and ask my parents where they were when it happened. Tragedies like this seem to mark time for people. Its as if when we discuss where we were and what we were doing, it unites us in some strange way. So, for what its worth, here are my two cents on that awful day, 7 years ago, as I recall it...
That morning I had to be at work at 9:00. I got up, got ready, spent some time reading my Bible, then left the house about 8:30. I lived just 8 blocks from the office and it was such a beautiful day, so I set off to walk as I always did. My normal route to work took me past a small park and playground. My habit was to pray as I walk and just "listen". I recall passing by a car parked along the side of the playground. A strange thing about it caught my eye and set me to thinking... the car had an alien head (one of those green Martians) on the antenna. Normally I wouldn't give it a second thought. For one thing, because it seems so silly. But I started considering what "alien" means in the biblical sense.
"But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR {God's} OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had not received mercy, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe {them,} glorify God in the day of visitation." 1 Peter 4:9-12
Meditating on that as I walked, I felt the unexplained urge to break down and cry.
Then, when I walked in the door at work I immediately knew something was wrong. Lisa was behind the front desk with that look on her face I have seen before on someone who just learned a loved one died, or heard about a tragic accident or something terrible like that. She quickly informed me what had taken place just minutes before. I can't say that at that moment I was overcome with emotion. Sure, I was shocked and had that immediate rush of fear (the way you feel when you have a near-miss car accident or something). But I don't remember feeling overly saddened or concerned. I just thought surely everyone would evacuate the buildings and the damage would be minimal.
I never imagined that afternoon we would look in horror at the live footage of those towers crumbling in a cloud of smoke and debris. Even then, I had no concept of the loss of life that would later be discovered.
3,000 people died.
THREE THOUSAND.
That is unimaginable. inconceivable. too big to wrap my mind around.
That evening I sat, glued to my television alone (Manny worked nights then), crying and hoping with the rest of the nation. What a horrible part of our past, which I will someday tell my son when he gets to that chapter in his history book.
No comments:
Post a Comment