Do you remember where you were? I was in my office in Hamburg, PA, working on finishing up the latest edition of the journal I edited at the time when my wife called me and told me a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. My mind flashed to the idea of an errant small plane pilot who misjudged and crashed. There would be some damage and a few lives lost and while that was tragic, before long things would be okay. That was not to be. Before long another plane crashed then another, and another, and it was clear this was not accidental, this was a full on attack. Do you remember?
I remember trying to wrap my head around what it would take to fill someone with so much evil and so much hate that they could conceive of the idea of taking a plane load of innocent people and turning it into a cruise missile, much less carry out the attack at least four times, using four different plane loads of people. It could only be explained as Satanic, at least in my mind, and even two decades later, I still wince when I think of it. Do you remember?
I remember the eerie silence of the empty skies, all the flights were grounded. I remember all the rumors, people,speaking in hushed tones of other thwarted attacks. I have almost no doubt that some of those stories were more than rumors, and I thank God I won’t know on this side of the grave which were true and which were false. I remember the news media filling the 24 hour news cycle with facts and fiction (unintentionally so) and speculation on what would be next and what the fall out would be from such attack. I remember the fear and the uncertainty of it all. Do you remember?
What I remember most was that night at church, sitting there waiting for people to come in to pray and to vent and to find comfort in the Lord, and I remember praying—lots and lots of praying. For a while it seemed like people were going to turn to God in the midst of the crisis. And for a while they did… Do you remember?
Today it’s been twenty years. I wish I could say we have learned and gotten better. For a bright shining moment we came together, but now, once again we have drifted apart with schisms deeper than any I can remember in my lifetime. I wish I could say that since that dark day, we the people have seen the light, but the daily news shows us we have forgotten and I fear that the saying will hold true. Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. Do you remember?
It’s not too late. There is one who is bigger than our divisions and our hope is found in Him. His name is the one the people cried out as the towers fell. Remember?
AMOKArts 