I don't guess I will ever make it through a September 11th without tears. Today is no exception. The memories started coming back last evening. And again this morning in conversations with Bob and the kids.
Fourteen years ago, we were in Texas. Bob was a youth pastor a local church. I was a housewife with two young children. Emma had just started her kindergarten year at the elementary school which was two minutes from our house. Since everyone else was at work and school, Austin, who was 17 months old, and I were getting settled into our morning at home. I was planning to let him watch a children's show, Barney to be exact, while I cleaned up the kitchen and tidied the house. I sat him down in front of the television and turned it on. It was on one of the major networks, ABC, if I'm remembering correctly. The first tower had just been struck. I could not discern what I was seeing and was taken aback by the sense of fear and confusion emanating from the broadcasters. Many things flashed through my mind at once. Was this a movie scene they were showing? No, it doesn't appear to be. Wait. This is real? This is live? How in the world did that plane just crash into one of the towers of the World Trade Center? What is going on here? I stayed glued to the television, while turning Austin's attention to some of his toys. Shortly after, the second tower was hit, and by then we all knew, this was a very dark day in our country.
We were under attack.
I called up to Bob's office to see if they were aware of what was happening. It took everything in me not to run up to the school and snatch Emma out of her classroom to be home with me. Bob ended up coming home, and like most of the rest of our fellow Americans, we watched the day's events unfold. Stunned. Shocked. Shaking our heads in unbelief.
This morning I was telling one of my younger children a few more of the details of that day. She wanted to know how many people died that day. Bob and I both answered at the same time. Three thousand, we said. And I explained to her that it wasn't just the attacks in New York. The Pentagon was attacked. And a fourth plane was diverted by some heroic passengers and crashed in Pennsylvania. Her eyes were wide with the reality of this knowledge. She knows the Pentagon is not that far from where we live. Pennsylvania, too, for that matter. The extent of the attacks became more clear to her this year.
I will share these photos with her a bit later, as I think she is ready to see what happened that day.
My prayer and hope is that our country will be protected from any more heinous acts of terrorism in the future. We know the threats are real and imminent.
But God.
I also pray that even though we as a country had the chance to experience awakening and revival fourteen years ago and did not, there is still time. God is not finished with us. There is still an undercurrent of His people who are crying out to Him for the United States of America. That is why our family is here, brought back from Canada, to see His will done on earth as it is in heaven, to see revival come.
Even in the midst of our remembering and tears, may we look to Him today. He is for us and His heart is to draw people to Himself. He does not want anyone to perish without salvation in His Son, Jesus Christ. He wants our country to know Him, to experience His unfailing love for us, and to carry out His will for our lives and our nation. Let us call on Him today in hope and expectation.
Blessings and love. xo
I remember being in my keyboarding class as a freshman in high school and I heard one of the seniors screaming down the hall because her dad was an employee inside the trade center. Unfortunately he did not make it and they were never able to find him. I live in NJ so I used to visit the world trade center a lot and those towers, they were something special. From across the river they just fit perfectly in the NYC skyline. I ate dinner at the top floor waiting so long for the elevator to make it up there. I was actually there a week before the attacks. Now every time I go to the city it still looks empty. The view will never be the same, however I will say they did an amazing job with the memorial at ground zero. I don't think any American will ever forget this day and exactly what they were doing when each tower was hit along with the Pentagon and what happened to the plane that crashed in PA.
ReplyDeleteThe most surreal moment I had when thinking about the 911 attacks was when I went to the memorial for the first time last year and saw the memorial that has all the names and on it read a women's named followed by "and her unborn child."
We will never forget. United we stand!
www.jerseygirltexanheart.com
Monica,
DeleteThank you, thank you, thank you for sharing your story of that fateful day. I think it's so important that we keep remembering and sharing and passing the horror and sorrow on to the next generations.
I recently read that there are actually 9/11 jokes that kids in high school and junior high tell today, in 2015. Jokes?!? I was shocked and appalled that anyone could even come up with a joke about that day, let alone that parents/teachers are not setting the record straight with their kids. I pray we do a better job of teaching the next generation the seriousness of terrorism and what it means to be patriotic.
Bless you, friend!
xo