story8737.xml

story8737.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-12-14

I was sitting in my living room folding laundry while watching CNN. As the terrible events kept unfolding, realilty became more and more horrible. An isolated plane crash was terrible enough, and New York had seen at least one other plane crash into a skyscraper. (The Empire State Building in the 1930's I think.) It was a tragedy, but not beyond the scope of any other. Then the second plane crashed, the Pentagon was crashed into and the plane went down in Penn. As the day progressed with more and more tragedies occurring, I became more and more appalled and confused. I was unsure what was happening. Were we being attacked, and if so, by whom? Was this the beginning of the End Times that the Bible predicts will happen? All I could do was fall on my face (literally!) and pray to God to help the survivors and rescue workers, that those who lost loved ones would be comforted in their grief, and that the horrors would stop.

Tom Mcguiness of Flight 11 was a friend of a friend and began attending our church a few months before we moved. I still wear a ribbon in memory of him, and all those who lost their lives that day.

Some would say "Where was God on that day?" I say that He was there, keeping people from flying and going to meetings in the WTC via running late, and traffic jams, etc. Up to 75,000 people could have died that day had all the planes, offices and tourist spaces had been filled to capacity. God kept so many safe that day. I say He was there guiding people out of the WTC, and was visible in the selflessness shown by those who risked their lives to help others evacuate, in the bravery of Mr. Beamer (sp?) and the others to keep the highjackers from crashing the plane into DC.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts on that very dark day. Out of the ashes have come stories of bravery and selflessness that shine like gold in the greyness of the evil of the terrible events.