I Remember

I remember it being the brightest, clearest day I had seen that year. A perfect cloudless blue sky. I noticed all of this before I even heard about the plane that had crashed into the tower.

We all have our September 11th story, the one that is seared in our minds and hearts. The story that we have told and re-told. A story we lived and are still living.

I want to record this story, my September 11th story, for my children.

I walked into the the church where I was working that year, my first year after graduating college, as the assistant to the Music Minister. A co-worker met me as we walked in from the parking lot together. I remember remarking to her, as a greating, about the  amazingly brilliant day. (The type of day that makes you want to stay outside and revel in it.) In return she asked if I had heard about the plane...the one that flew into a building in New York. We concluded what a tragic accident it was!

I had not heard anything for myself at that point. By the time we made it inside, settled ourselves in for the day and had our morning staff prayer time, the second plane had crashed into the second tower. Collectively we knew that something terrible was happening. I watched in horror over an hour later as the first tower fell. I saw the images of people jumping to their deaths. I watched in sorrow as the ash fell, blanketing a city.

Blanketing our hearts.

We now live in the aftermath of the decisions of people who did evil in the name of a god who does not exist.

I remember the uncertainty we all lived in during the following weeks and months and years. I remember the tallying of the deceased. All 2,977 of them. I remember the push for blood donation, and then the stark, horrifying realization that it wasn't needed. I remember the hole in the ground where towers once stood proudly. I remember the stock market crashing and I remember the fear. I remember the national pride and the foreign scorn. I remember the declarations of war...and more lives lost as our country was defended.

We still live with that day. It changed us all. Evil will do that.

But, thankfully, so will good. God was, is, and always will be Sovereign. Nothing happens that He doesn't orchestrate or allow. I know that doesn't answer the big question...why? Why would something like this happen? As with many atrocities and disasters of human history, there aren't any simple answers.

I know this to be true: God is good. God is righteous. I trust Him.

I trust Him with my future. I trust Him with my life.

I trust that He holds the events of that day, 10 years ago, in the palms of His hands.

Do you remember?