September 12, 2001

"Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave

                         O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"

Colossians 3:12 NIV

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

Allison was four years old September 11, 2001. She came home from preschool to tell us about "bad men who hit a building with a plane."  Now, at age fourteen, her personal memories of that day are non-existent. She asked us this weekend about our memories of that horrible day.

I was teaching a class of juniors at the time.  I had to interpret the images and news for them because many of them did not follow current events.  They didn't have a context by which to understand the impact of the news reports and the attack on our nation.

After class, I sat on a chair in a corner of my room in stunned disbelief as I tried to absorb the messages from the news reports.  I happened to look out my classroom window and saw a colleague on her cell phone pacing on the sidewalk outside my room.  I remembered she had family in New York City and quickly surmised what was going on. I ran outside to reach her. She told me in quick bursts of speech that her niece and nephew were in the daycare at the base of the Trade Center. She had called her brother to find out about them, but she couldn't get through to him on the phone.  I escorted her to the principal's office to find a place to sit.

Eventually, she received word the children were safe.

As September 12 dawned, it became apparent that even hundreds of miles away from New York City and Washington D.C., our small community had close ties to the attacks from the day before.

What message would I want Allison to remember about those days?  I would want her to know how our nation came together as one after the attacks. Congress persons from both political parties stood in a united front on the Capitol steps.

People from around the nation helped in the rescue and recovery efforts at Ground Zero. Others stood in line to donate blood for victims. Hundreds of school children across the nation wrote condolence messages to the fire houses that lost men in the rescue efforts.

God's presence was seen in the countless miracles and kindnesses total strangers exhibited to each other as they tried to escape the chaos that unfolded on September 11.

The terror and horror of the day can never be forgotten, yet we should continue to embrace the love and unity that followed shortly afterwards.
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Lord, as I recall September 11, 2001, let me also recall that September 12 brought unity and love among my countrymen and women.