25 years seem like yesterday
It’s hard to believe. 25 years ago the tragic events of 9/11 unfolded in New York City. I remember it like it was yesterday.
My husband pastored a church an hour north of New York City. Our adult children were teaching at a Lutheran school in Queens. When we drove across the Whitestone Bridge to visit them, the view of the New York skyline with the Twin Towers at the southern tip never ceased to amaze.
Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The circuit pastors first monthly gathering was at our church. As I walked across the parking lot from the parsonage, I couldn’t help but notice the beautiful blue sky. Patti, the secretary was listening to the radio. She said, “Do you know what’s going on?” “No,” I responded. “The World Trade Center got hit by a plane.” Well, didn’t that happen before. What’s the big deal? Unbelievably, the radio reported. “The tower is collapsing! The tower is collapsing!” Well, I sprinted back to the house to turn on the TV. Sure enough, chaos; images offire in the tower, its collapse and shortly the second tower collapsed.
How horrible! How incomprehensible! I wanted to get in my car and drive down and DO SOMETHING; anything to help. The best I could offer was prayer. Any maybe that’s all I needed to do. Where was God in all of this? Read on.
In the aftermath of the collapse of the twin towers, an iron worker discovered an 18-foot-long crossbeam, weighing at least two tons, thrust at a vertical angle in the hellish wasteland. The cross at Ground Zero. When pain and sorrow overwhelmed the workers, he urged them to come to “God’s House” and rest in His presence beneath the cross.
We too find rest in the cross. Jesus sacrificial death on the cross reminds us that we poor sinners need forgiveness. I wear a cross necklace to remind me. Maybe you do too. We sing, ”In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o’er the wrecks of time…” (LSB #427)
The cross was moved to a pedestal on the street for all to see and eventually found a permanent home in the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
I have since visited the site. Standing by the memorial pools which cover the footprint of each of the towers, I recalled that inconceivable day. It’s different. But the message of salvation thru Christ on the cross never changes. It never fails.
LSB Hymn # 560 sums it up perfectly. “Drawn to the cross, which Thou hast blessed with healing gifts for souls distressed, To find in Thee my life, my rest, Christ crucified, I come.”
Jill Munoz, VP Christian Growth
(Photo: From God’s house
Fired new from dying flame,
This living sign remains,
Arms outstretched, embracing yet,
Our avalanche of pain, To still, to fill, to heal again.
Steve Lee, Peace Officers Ministry)
