Actually, in some way, we ALL experienced it. Just like our parents all remember exactly where they were when President John F. Kennedy died, we too recall where we were and what we were doing on the day of what's been referred to as 9-11.
I remember my Mom calling to tell me a plane had hit a building in the States. So I turned on the television, thinking it was a computer problem in an airplane or perhaps an air traffic controller's error in calculations.
After watching the television for a bit, I called my husband who was trucking in Western Canada. I was telling him of the horrific scene of what I was watching. All of a sudden, I saw plane #2 smash into the second building. I remember trying to relay those visions by words to Jon as I tried to process what I was seeing on the screen.... Live! My stomach was sickened, my mind confused, my mouth struggled to find the proper words. I sat, awestruck.
And the rest of the day was truly history in the making.
We grieved and prayed for our American neighbours and our fellow Canadians as we watched many perish, many suffer, many literally run, or jump, for their lives, or in some cases, their deaths. I remember being nauseated while watching a woman, who was terrified of burning to death, leap from a window of one building. I can't imagine that she survived the hundreds-of-feet fall. It all seemed like a dream.... a terrible confusing nightmare.
And as the day unfolded, and we heard of other planes that had crashed in a field and rumours of a plane crashing into the Pentagon, the world seemed to stop. The skies were off limits for absolutely every metal 'bird'. Every airline shut down. Every plane and helicopter grounded. Every single heart heavy.
The following days turned out every emotion..... sadness and grief, pain, heartache, fear, anger, confusion, wonder. We had all been violated.
But there was also this amazing sense of love as strangers embraced one another and offered support. We saw and heard stories of an outpouring of love; we heard reports that the churches couldn't hold the number of people who were pressing in to get answers from The Almighty; we saw people putting others ahead of themselves.....
And all the while, God was still on the throne.
Some will argue that a "good" God would not allow this kind of tragedy to happen. As Christians, we know that everything that happens to us, or around us, happens for a reason. We can't understand it now, but someday we will.
And perhaps we don't HAVE to understand what happened with 9-11. Might we just need to trust that our Lord knows what HE's doing? That HE's still in control? That in the end, all will make sense?
It's hard for us to not question God, but if we can just remember that our days were all ordained for us and were written in His book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16). We need to keep trusting in Him with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding...(Proverbs 3:5), because our own understanding is really SO limited.
I wanted to share these two videos. They're both the same song, by Alan Jackson. The first one is of Alan singing the song for the very first time at the Country Music Awards, just after the 9-11 tragedy; I remembering hearing it, live, that evening. I bawled through the whole thing, and I still shed tears every time I hear it.
The second video shows pictures and news reports of that day. Perhaps some of you don't care to see some very descriptive images; that's why I've posted the first video as well.
Today as you go out into the world, embrace others with the love that you felt that day for the victims and their families, for those who suffered injuries, for the emergency response folks who sacrificed their very lives for the lives of others.
And thank you to radio station UCB Canada 102.3 for your songs and words and reports this morning in memory of September 11th.
God is still on the throne. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. To Him be all glory and praise and adoration. Amen.
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