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Featured writer, Patty Zemanick
September
11, 2001
9-1-1 a call for help;
a cry to be rescued. 9-11 a day our Nation will never forget; when
life as we knew it changed – perhaps never to be the same again.
September 11, 2001 began as
always… rising early in the morning, walking the dog, throwing breakfast
together for the kids, grab the purse, grab the keys, hurry please, car
pool line at school, kisses good-bye, don’t forget your lunch, driving
a little too fast to get to work… life as I know it.
Zoning out as I drove along…
sometimes humming a tune, sometimes thinking right out loud… when the announcer
on the radio jerked me back to reality. “An American Airlines passenger
plane just crashed into one of the twin towers at the World Trade Center
in New York City”… “Explosions, fire, smoke”… I don’t remember the rest
of the drive to work, parking the car or riding the elevator to the fourth
floor… But I do remember our office staff gathered around a radio listening,
hoping… when suddenly we heard… “Another American Airlines passenger plane
just crashed into the second tower”… “We are under attack, our nation
is under attack”…
As you became aware of these
events, what were your first thoughts? Did you wonder how this would
affect the stock market? Were you concerned how this would impact
the business transaction you were frantically trying to close? Or
did you find, like most Americans, that all you really thought about or
cared about was your family and how you just wanted to be with them… to
hug them… and see with your own eyes that they were ok. Did you find,
like most Americans, that you desperately wanted to do something but realized
aside from blood donations and financial donations, the only thing that
felt right was falling on your knees in prayer? “Oh Lord, hear our cries,
heal the wounded, protect those trying to save them, comfort those that
mourn”…
What happened on that sunny,
September morning? What went so terribly wrong? Even my ten-year
old son asked me, “Mom, why would God do that?” “Honey,” I replied,
“God didn’t do that – evil in the hearts of men did that.”
Yet, God will have the final word because He has the ability to take what
man meant for evil and from the destruction create something of beauty.
Take a look around you. It’s already beginning to happen…
The only business that is booming
right now is the “church” business. People are flooding to churches
for comfort and to seek answers to the questions that pull at their hearts.
Perhaps some are uttering prayers from lips that have never spoken with
God before. A door is opened to the Father and dialogue begins.
Our priorities seems to have returned
to proper order, or at least moving in the right direction… God first,
family second… job somewhere down the line. Yesterday I heard an
amazing statistic… since this tragedy the number of couples choosing to
reconcile instead of divorce has increased by three times. Thousands
of divorces are being pulled from court dockets.
Our society now has enormous respect
for authority figures. Images of firemen and police officers being
pulled from rubble… laying down their lives with the hope of finding just
one person alive. Our nation stands and solutes those being called
to serve our country, some will serve in lands far away… far away from
those they love. No more jokes about cops sitting around donut shops.
No more jokes about men and women joining the military because they just
couldn’t make it in the “real world”. These are our best… our finest…
our heroes.
Honor and respect has returned
to the oval office. Our flag can be seen from sea to shining sea… on the
back of fire trucks… on car antennas… on bicycles. Prayer seems to
have tiptoed through the back doors of our schools, government offices
– even the White House.
On September 11, 2001 a cry for
help rose into the heavens and it did not go unheard. The LORD said,
"You can be sure I have seen the misery of my people. I have heard
their cries. I am aware of their suffering. Exodus 3:7
Since that moment our Heavenly Father has been on a rescue mission of His
own... comforting the sorrowful, healing the wounded and perhaps
His most challenging task – rescuing us from ourselves.
On September 11, 2001 life as
we knew it changed – perhaps never to be the same again. Oh, how
I pray that is true!
Patty
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