Reflections on 9.11
I remember 9.11 like it was yesterday. I was a junior at St. Agnes Boys High School, on the west side of Manhattan, sitting in my first period class. I sat there joking around with my friends when instantly all the jokes came to a end. We heard the voice of our principal come through the loud speakers as he cautiously shared that two airplanes have been hijacked an flown into the World Trade Center. At that moment uncertainty and fear overtook us. Immediately our teacher turned on the news and first period class became our last period. Shortly after we began to hear students names called through the loud speaker as one by one parents or relatives arrived to pick up their own. At some point I remember going to the restroom, pulling out my cell phone and trying to get in contact with my mother. I worried if she was ok. She was a grade school teacher in Chinatown, near the Towers. Eventually, my name was called and I was relieved to see my father come to pick me up. We drove to his job. As a manager of a parking garage he had to return to work on the east side of Manhattan. One of my older sisters, Jenny, met us at his job. That day we walked about six miles to get home to upper Manhattan. I remember seeing an older lady in the streets screaming out, “What is happening? what is happening?” As she saw the mobs of people flood the streets. Trains were no longer in service, and buses were overcrowded and unable to fit anymore passengers. Eventually, as we got uptown, we heard that our mom was safe. Some charter buses had picked up people who worked in the area surrounding the World Trade Center.
On that day my world changed. On that day I saw the extent of the evil within the heart of man, including my own. No longer did I read about it in a book or hear it on the news. Death was on our front yard. I was propelled to ask deep questions and I did not rest until I found answers, until I found the Truth. For the first time I was asking questions like, how can God be good and allow this to happen? Is God silent? For the next couple of years I looked to the word of God for answers and what I found was an explanation as to why this world is soo broken. I understood the real remedy that God offers to man in order to restore and heal this brokenness. Also, the Bible revealed an all powerful, sovereign and good God who is so weaving the events of history in order to make himself known by redeeming all of creation from death, and evil.
I read the words of a man named Job, who loved God and had everything taken from him say, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD (Job 1:21).” I read the words of Joseph, who after many years ran into his brothers who sold him into slavery say to them, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today (Genesis 50:20).” Satan uses evil to destroy, God flips evil on it’s head and uses it for good.
Radical Islamic men, kill themselves and others because others don’t believe what they believe. The Bible tells us of a savior named Jesus, who instead of killing lays his own life down for his enemies, me included, to make for them a way back to their Maker. When Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice he defeated the power of sin and death. That is why ten years later, I hope. I hope because Jesus was a real man, in real history, and who really resurrected from the dead, defeating Satan, sin, death, and the power of evil with love, power and grace.
Much more can be said, but today, I remember those lost on 9.11, weep with those who weep and hope in God.
