pieces and ponderings

Yesterday I sat with my two youngest children and watched video from September 11, 2001.  We watched footage of the first plane crashing into the first tower of the Twin Towers.  We looked at pictures taken of President Bush by the White House photographer, Eric Draper, only moments after the president heard the news of the first crash…thinking like so many of us, “What a terrible accident.”

And then a second plane flew directly into the second tower and the realization that this was no accident began to dawn on people across our land.

We watched the news footage of a reporter giving the timeline of the morning’s horrible events.

We watched footage of President Bush standing on a heap of rubble at ground zero speaking into a megaphone, “I can hear you” and telling those first responders that soon the world would be hearing them also.

I looked at this video footage and choked back sobs…and I remembered.

I remember dropping off three of my kids at school that morning and hearing on the drive home the first reports on the radio giving the details of the first plane crash.

I remember going to my weekly Bible study…still wondering exactly what was going on.  I remember talking to my husband who was working on a military post at the time and him telling me that the base was under a lockdown.  I remember feeling like maybe the world was about to end.

Our two sons that watched the footage with me yesterday were only 5 and 1-years-old at the time of the 9/11 attack on our nation…too young to remember.  We watched several news stories together and I recalled to them the events of the day and the courage displayed by numerous men and women.  I remembered the way our nation rallied together.  I remember the way many people turned to God, crying out in pain…crying out for help.

One of the pictures that we looked at yesterday was a photograph of a badge worn by a New York Port Authority officer who had died in the Twin Towers on 9/11.  The badge was given to President Bush by the officer’s mother.  The article said that the President carried that badge with him in his pocket throughout the remainder of his presidency…so he would remember…so he could remind others of all that had happened on that day.

And I remembered that Tuesday afternoon on September 11, when I pulled into my driveway with all my children with me and watched the gate in our neighborhood close behind our car.  I wished as I watched that closing gate in my rear view mirror, that I could close out the fear that was rising up within me…the fear of the unknown…the fear of what might  happen in our homeland after those attacks…the fear that perhaps there would be more violence to come.

But the attacks had happened…the violence had been committed…our nation had been violated…an irreversible change had occurred.

Yesterday as I remembered with my children…I was thankful to be reminded of the atrocity…of the victims…of the many heroic acts.  I was thankful to be reminded that no matter what happens in this world…no matter how tragic…my God is still enthroned in Heaven…He is not caught off-guard…and He is not fearful…He is still at work…loving people of all nations…revealing Himself in big and in small ways so that we might call out to Him and desire His peace in our hearts.