Sunday, September 11, 2011

9/11 Rememberance and Memorial

I was at work in downtown San Francisco. My husband called me to let me know that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I logged onto the internet. Then came the second phone call and news of the second tower hit. All I wanted to do was go home and be with my husband. My work, however, would insist we press on and continue to work. Then tower 2 collapsed. Then tower 1. "Oh God, save them."

The shock I felt, sadness...prayers lifted up... when the horror of the news and pictures on the internet reached my eyes was inexplicable. I prayed that every single person in those towers would be met by Jesus and comforted by Him. Then the news of the Pentagon and Pennsylvania plane crash.

Then the news of my mother on an airplane coming back from Florida to Arizona, where she was helping her sister, rerouted to Texas early in the day when the President ordered all aircraft out of the sky.

In Arizona, at my mother's home, 1130pm, my younger brother, Richard, slept. He heard frantic knocking and screaming at the front door. It was a man warning the household that the carport, car in the carport, and outdoor laundry room were on fire. My brother, unsure if this were true, neared the carport from inside when he felt the heat of the fire. In his pajamas, he hurriedly picked up his car keys and ran out the front door. Just seconds after that, the car in the carport exploded shooting flames through the attic and engulfing most of the house.

Then came the phone call from my little brother. Alarmed at the late night phone call, calmly and uncharacteristically monotone, "Elva, the house is burning down." "What?" I was confused. We were still reeling from events of the day. My mother's mom had just passed away. My parents were recently divorced. Terrorism struck us that day, and NOW? NOW? The house is on fire?

When I spoke to my mother early that morning, her response, in a shakey voice that carried the sound of sadness and loss, "Elva, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."

My mother has always shown EXTREME strength in the Lord because of her TRUST in the Lord. Even in spite of all she had lost. Emotions in my family ran high for our family on 9/11. Even though we did not know ONE NAME of the people in that tower, we felt like we had lost over 3000 of our own family. And the fire on that day brought the tragedy home, even closer to us.

Then, in the days that followed, people who had never walked into a church, began walking into churches to find comfort and solice in God.
People who didn't pray, began to pray.
Then, most cars on the road donned the American Flag.
Then, time passed.
People woke up later and later and stopped seeking comfort and solice from God.
Flags didn't don cars anymore.
Politics divided the country.
People who didn't know anyone in the towers began to forget.
Then, 10 Years Later... here we are again. Commemorating the 10th Year After this tragedy.

The Bible says in Isaiah 55:
6Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7Let the wicked forsake his way
and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.

I wrote a song when my friends, the Hasenbalgs, were met by their own tragedy in losing their child. My prayer is that this song will be one to remind you that in whatever sorrow or loss, trial or difficulty, there is ONE who is NEAR to you. I am posting it on my FACEbook Music Page Band Profile. There is healing in tears, when you allow the savior and Light of the world to comfort you.

Dedicating this song to all those today, who are remembering 9/11. Praying for comfort for all.
Love, e

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