I had intended to write this, and post it on 9-11 but this week has been nuts with soccer games, and high school open house. So now my post.
My father always said those old enough to remember Pearl Harbor can recall exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news of the attack. It is the same for me and many others in regards to 9-11-2001. The day that the twin towers and pentagon were hit by terrorists, and the jet that crashed in PA. Those twin towers were the same buildings that my dad would walk out of when he arrived from the Path Train, when he worked in Manhattan. Growing up in New Jersey the twin towers were something I loved looking for when driving down the New Jersey Turnpike. When traveling to New Jersey to visit my parents, sometimes we would travel over the George Washington Bridge, and I would gaze down the Hudson River looking for the twin towers as I loved looking at the New York skyline. The World Trade Center was a landmark of NYC skyline. Now when we travel to New Jersey, and drive over the George Washington Bridge my eyes still look down the Hudson only now the towers are gone and sadness overcomes me for all those that died that day and for the family members they left behind.
That fateful Tuesday, the eleventh of September began like all Tuesday's. I was up early to welcome in the day care children and to get Matt and Dan out the door for the school bus. Thomas was four and would celebrate his fifth birthday at the end of the month, and Mark was 15 months. While walking the boys to the bus stop, I can still remember the sky that morning which was an incredible deep blue, without a cloud in the sky. I was thinking to myself, I don't remember a day in which the sky was ever that color blue it was incredibly beautiful was that day. When we got back to the house Good Morning America was on T.V, and the children were all playing while I cleaned up the kitchen. GMA was getting ready to sign off, when breaking news took over the station to report that a plane had flown into one of the twin towers. I stopped what I was doing, and was glued to the T.V. I could not believe what I was watching as smoke was pouring out of the tower. They were reporting that this must have been an accident when another plane flew into the other tower. I remember crying thinking of all the people that were on those planes, and in the towers. I prayed that God would keep safe those that were still alive and bring comfort to the families whose loved ones died. Later that day when I turned back on the news at lunch time I found out that two other planes had been hijacked, one flew into the pentagon and another crashing into a field in PA, and the WTC was no more. Both towers had been demolished.
As the days and weeks passed after 9-11, you could not turn on a radio station without hearing a patriotic song. With each patriotic song, I could not hold back the tears of sadness. Weeks and months following the attacks, one could notice a change in the people. People seemed to be kinder, and more patient with one another. People were turning to God, and pew numbers had increased. We were seeing a nation on its knees, and it's people were turning away from material things and turning to what really mattered, God and family. Our nation's people were asking why God would allow this to happen.
Many people asked why God would allow something so horrific happen. Some preachers claimed that God was punishing our nation because of our moral decline, and that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. I am sorry but that last statement is the farthest from the truth! Jesus answered this when his disciples asked what caused the man to become blind, was it his sin or the sin of his parents. Jesus replied that it was neither but so God's glory would be seen. But I did find myself asking "why" God would allow this. I also asked the "why" questions when a new tumor was found growing on my lower lumbar which caused many issues for me, and "why" I was losing my ability to walk. I spent many a day’s crying for what I was losing and asking God why was He allowing all these other things to happen to me as I thought the stage IV cancer was enough! Back to 9-11, God does not cause tragedy. Bad things happen because we live in a sinful world that is broken to the core. A pastor being interviewed on Issues Etc said, "He allows things to happen because "ALL things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28) This has been the verse that I cling to whenever my mind goes a wondering. The pastor also said that God does not allow evil to happen unless he can create great good. We find this so true in the death and resurrection of our savior Jesus Christ. "The world’s worst murder became the world’s only salvation"(Joni Tada) Satan’s motive is to shipwreck our faith, to make us hate God and turn away from him. Satan wants us to take our eyes off of the cross and Jesus. God's motive is to ruin the Devil's plan. Ephesians 1:11 tells us that God works everything in conformity with the purpose of His will.
So where was God on 9-11? He was the feet and hands of those first responders. He was in the people that stopped to help and risked their own lives for another human being. He was in the firemen that went into those towers trying to help others knowing they might not come back out. He was seen with people bringing food and supplying water to the rescuers that were searching through the wreckage. He was seen in those on United flight 93 that risked their lives to take over the plane and abort the highjackers plans. Jesus’ light was seen all over those days, and months after 9-11. God was there, you just have to open your eyes and look past the evil.
One last word on my radiation myelits, I had a 1-2% chance for the radiation treatment to cause my paralysis and I was that 1-2%. Before writing this, I believed it was just a crap shoot that this would happen to me. But, now I look at it with my eyes wide open,. Satan’s ultimate goal is to shipwreck my faith, when I take my focus off of Jesus and the cross. I must pray that the Holy Spirit will refocus my eyes back on Jesus. Besides my own faith that Satan is so eager to try and crumble like the twin towers, he is also after the faith of my children and husband. He would like no more than to see my entire family turn against Jesus. But, I just cling to God’s promises, “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out EVERYTHING in conformity with the purpose of his will” Ephesians 1:11, “And we know that in ALL things God works for the good of those that love him, who have been called according to his purpose”. Romans 8:28. The “good” I might not see right now in my life here on earth but I must trust in God’s word. It all comes down to trust. Whom do you trust when bad things happen? Do you trust in God and his promises or do you crunble under Satan?
