Grace Community Christian Church

 

Archived Things Above

Gazing upward... (1/5/02)

September 11 is my generation's Pearl Harbor. It will be watched, analyzed, meditated upon and brooded over for years. The questions and issues that it raised are urgent, countless and numbing. Yet despite the evil inflicted, much good has resulted. The following is one of the better pieces I've read. It won't give you any clues as to the "why's" of September 11, but it will steer you to the "Who" of hope. Frankly, for me, that's enough.

Gazing upward, we saw plumes of fire and smoke staining the morning sky. Gazing upward again minutes later, another fireball in another tower. Then, before our disbelieving eyes, both mighty towers crashed to the earth, surrounding the city with acrid smoke and concrete dust and he sad silence of uncounted lives suddenly snuffed out. Gazing upward, our hearts were broken.

Hate on the day. But it cannot win the war.

Hate cannot win against the unbridled bravery of the men and women who went into those buildings to serve and to save. Such people, a term like "hero" cannot begin to measure.

Hate cannot win against a city and a nation of people devoting their time and treasure, risking their safety, and donating their very blood to help the fallen and their families.

Hate cannot win against a people discovering again what we have always known: the meaning of community, the bond of patriotism, the value of helping others.

Hate cannot win against a society that stands tall when kneeling on bended knee.

Hate cannot win against hope.

Like the dust around us, so much is still unsettled. For awhile, the questions shouted from our souls may drown out the whispered answers that time and wisdom wait to tell. Yet, though our souls ache, there is hope. In our darkest hour, there is hope: carrying us, counting every tear, knowing us and aching to be known. For in all that mankind has ever chosen to worship, the God of the Bible stands alone as the only God who ever lost His only child.

Gazing upward, our hearts were broken. Yet gazing upward, we can find our hope.

(From the brochure, Fallen But Not Forgotten. © The King's College, in Affiliation with Campus Crusade for Christ International.)


Jim Dewar --