.... teaching a class full of innocent children....
That is what I was doing that day.
I remember that song and I am remembering today that Tuesday 10 years ago. The Tuesday that changed our lives forever. It was the "Pearl Harbor" of our generation.
In remember how a co-worker walked into my room as I was teaching to share with me that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center.
At that moment there was no major panic. It was tragic, but we didn't realize the evil intended.
YET.
A few minutes later that same co-worker walked back into my room to share about the other plane.
I remember feeling weak in the knees and wondering how I was going to keep acting as if everything was normal with the little ones I was teaching when we now realized everything was not.
Not too much later this same co-worker came in to share that another plane had crashed into the Pentagon. I was getting to the point I didn't want my friend to come back into the room!
I was overwhelmed. All I could do is sit. And at that moment I told the children in my class that we needed to pray.
I don't remember what I prayed but I just knew I needed to reach out to the Lord.
My babies were just a little over a year then. I remember wanting to come home and hold tightly to my family. There were many people who would never have a whole family again because of what happened on that fateful day.
In the years since, I have not wanted to forget. We have gone on with our lives, as we should in some ways, but we must never forget the horrible evil that happened in our country. I still get so emotional when re-living that day and the weeks to follow.
As I have been talking with Wesley and Mikayla in the past few days about this tragic time, I am reminded that they don't know how it felt that day. They don't remember because they didn't experience it like we did. They have lots of questions as to why it happened.
We even talked about Osama bin Laden last night. Wesley asked if he knew Jesus. I told him that from the way he lived his life I would have to say no.
But we all commented that Jesus Christ died for Osama bin Laden and those terrorists that carried out the heinous attacks just like He died for you and me.
Do we ever stop and think of that?
There were people in those towers and in the Pentagon that were good people... but they were lost in their sin. They were no different than those that flew the planes in the simple fact that they did not know Christ. Their life ended tragically and so suddenly without knowing the One Who could give them eternal life.
On this ten year anniversary it is a reminder to me that life is short and we, as Christians, have a "call to duty"... that of reaching the lost souls for Jesus Christ. I was humbled this morning thinking of times I have wasted not sharing Christ with others.
Something so simple but yet so hard for some people to believe is John 3:16 -
For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Let this day be a day of remembrance, but also a time of reflecting on whether we are doing what we should for the cause of Christ. Man makes choices every day and ten years ago we saw the evil choice that affected thousands upon thousands of people.
May we make the choice to live our lives for God's glory and share God's Word so that others can know Christ. You never know where your words or actions can "affect" or "infect" someone for the Lord.
1 comment:
I believe I would have been in your class on that day! I was only 7 and I don't remember any of it!
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