IN REMEMBRANCE OF ALL OF THIS

We will remember.

It’s been 25 years. It’s been a while, yet I still remember every moment of that day like it was yesterday. I remember I turned 40 on that day, September 11, 2001. Yeah, yeah, do the math. I signed up for Medicare this year. That was fun. But back to the remembering. I walked up to check on my middle child. She was getting ready to leave for school. She was in high school at that time. I was kind of expecting her to wish me a happy birthday, instead I got, “Hey mom, did you see that a plane flew into the World Trade Center. As of that time both towers were still standing. A little while later by dad called, again I was thinking of getting a birthday greeting, instead he told me to turn on the TV a second plane had hit the second tower. Ok now you got my attention. I put away my narcissistic attitude of hoping to get happy birthday wishes and focused on the horror movie being played out in real time. Two planes hijacked by terrorists and now at 9:43 AM a third plane plunged into the Pentagon in Washington DC. And then the report of United Flight 93 crashed in a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania. It was the only plane not to hit it’s intended target by the terrorists that day. And the words, “Let’s roll,” spoken by American Patriot Todd Beamer live on in infamy.

Moment by ever slow moment that day rolled on. Air traffic was halted. I had my oldest attending her first year at Texas Tech. I remember the utter helplessness I felt and the huge need to go to Lubbock and pick her up so I could just hug her. Who cares if I was turning 40? It was no longer a thought flowing through my mind. Our country was under attack and I just wanted all my children under my roof. Youth football game were put on hold and I was glued to the news channels.

We will remember, how could we forget? But we do. Time passes and memories fade, and life moves on. It was the same for the generation before me and their remembrance of Pearl Harbor. It is human nature. A new generation is birthed. They were born years after 911. It is hard for them to grasp our heartache watching the towers fall and the smoke and ash billowing down Broadway, Fulton Street, and West Street in Manhattan.

So we raise our memorials. Freedom Towers was inaugurated in 2014. The two massive reflecting pools sit in the exact foundation of the Twin Towers. The site is called Reflecting Absence. The water cascades 30 feet down into a square basin and then drops another 20 feet into a central bottomless void. The infinite water drops representing all the tears of families who lost loved ones buried underneath the rubble and in the field of Pennsylvania. These reflecting ponds are the absence of the lives lost made visible. It is the emptiness left behind during this terror attack. The waters flow continuously but the void of their deaths can never be filled. The sound of the rushing water blocks out the noise of the busy New York traffic setting a scene for reflection.

On September 12, 2001 Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle quoted Isaiah 9:10, “the bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees (or sycamores) have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.” And that is exactly what we did.

However, the Holy Spirit keeps bringing another verse to mind this day. “Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city the guards stand watch in vain.” Psalm 127:1

All is vain unless we remember this one verse also. Our efforts to remember to memorialize, to vow, “never again.” They are pointless. They pack no punch. We must seek the LORD now while He may be found. We must humble ourselves, seek His face, pray and turn from our wicked ways so that God will hear our prayers, forgive us our sins, and heal our land.

Today at sunset in the commonwealth of Israel all across the country the people heard the sound of the shofar being blown. The Fall Feasts have begun. It is Rosh HaShanah, head of the Year. The first festival is the Feast of Trumpets, Yom Teruah. It revolves around hearing the blast of the ram’s horn, the shofar. The trumpet blasts are a wake up call. They begin the ten days of Awe. You blow through the narrow end of the rams horn and the sound blows out the wide end.

“Out of my distress I called upon the LORD; the Lord answered me and set me in a large place.” Psalm 118:5

The appointed feasts and appointed times have begun in the Jewish culture. They are appointments. They are times God set aside. We stop, we drop our hands, noises have been muted and we seek the Lord and He meets with us. God is calling all people. The trumpets have been blown. It is time to pause. Something matters more than the rush of life. We are in bondage to busyness, but God wants to bring each of us into wide open place of freedom, and giving us breathing room for safety.

911 it is a time to remember, to heal, to forgive.

Rosh HoShanah. It is a time to stop and listen. God is the One who is calling us to remember Him and all He has done. Remember His Son. “For God so loved the world He gave His One and Only son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but will have everlasting life.” These are the days to stand in awe of the One who created us, sustains us and offers us our salvation.