Today is 9/11. The day, 6 years ago, that some 3,000 people died from the direct actions of 19 men. 19 men killed 3,000 people ...
My radio alarm clock went off at its normal time of 6:30 a.m. I was still half-asleep but the DJs on the radio seemed frantic and worried. "The World Trade Center has been attacked," is all I heard. Was I still asleep? After Ryan and I recognized what was going on we rushed to the television. The images of the burning buildings are still right there in my mind. How much more so are they in the minds of those who lost a loved one on this very sad day?
Ryan reminded me just this morning that it was 9/11 and in the busyness of my day I didn't think about it until I finally sat down tonight and saw the date as it appears on a blog after someone posts a comment ... September 11, 2007. Oh, that's right, it's 9/11. Ryan said they were showing images from the burning twin-towers on the news this morning. We weren't sure if that was the best way to memorialize the day ... I am sort of speechless about this topic. It just makes me sad to think of the many lives lost because of hatred, greed and sin. And it also reminds of just how long we have been at war ... 6 years ... and so many more lives have been lost, on both sides of the battle field. Oh, how God must be crying over our weak attempt to be powerful and mighty and #1.
4 comments:
I was recently reading a book that was all about remembering rightly. I hope that we learn to remember 9/11/01 rightly.
In remembering this event, I want to remember and hear about the lives and families of the victims of the attacks, and not see images of the terrorists' victories of the destruction of the twin towers. In remembering rightly, I would like to be able to see how our country has risen amidst this attack to become a better place to live, or at least be encouraged to personally reexamine my life in response to Al Qaeda's attacks, and to live a life more like Christ. In remembering rightly I would like to somehow begin to wrap my head around the numbers of the lives devastated by this attack:
2,819 - People killed in the 9/11 attacks.
3774 - American Military Casualties in Iraq since 3/19/03
71,720 – 78,296 - Documented Iraqi civilian deaths from violence since 3/19/03
45 - Iraqi civilian deaths yesterday, as a result of violence
2 - Iraqi women killed yesterday as a result of a US raid.
126,000 number of abortions a DAY worldwide.
I don't want these to just be numbers, I want to see these numbers as individuals created in the image of God. I want to be able to see these numbers as people with sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, moms and dads, pastors and teachers. I want to learn how to love those suffering.
How do the emotions that I feel for the death of God's created beings in the Middle East compare with the emotions that I feel for the death of God's created beings in the US?
Amber I wanted to invite you to something can you give me your email address,
Kate
kate.e10@gmail.com
Yeah, I forgot it was 9-11. I didn't even get one email this year about remembering, which "helped" me forget. I can't believe I forgot the date, but I did not forget the incident.
I remember sitting in front of CNN for two weeks, on bedrest, about to deliver the twins. You couldn't turn away from it. And with the war still creeping on, it feels like it never really stopped.
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