God Bless America ~ September 11

We still feel it here in New York. We still have the scars. We still have a hole in the ground. Thousands of fellow New Yorkers are still gone. New York's Finest and New York's Bravest are still missing their comrades.
Yes, we've risen from the ashes, and our city has gone back to what it should be. We have banded together with courage and dignity, and with the generous hearts of our fellow Americans, we were able to move forward. The spirit of America upheld us. And the prayers of the world sustained us.
But we have not forgotten the victims, and we have not forgotten the loved ones they've left behind.

Little snippets of prayers, and poems, and songs, and stories and memories of September 11 will stay with me always, and I'm sure it is the same with others.
A beautiful morning, clear skies, sun shining.
Did I hear right?
A plane crashed into one of the Twin Towers?
They're reporting it was a small plane.
It was no accident.
A second plane plunges into the other Tower.
They are hijackers. They are terrorists.
One of our darkest hours.

One of our finest hours.
There are courageous acts of heroism.
Make a plan.
Boil some water.
Pray together.
"Let's roll."

Phone calls placed to loved ones.
Messages of love left on answering machines.
Spared because a child started Kindergarten that day.
Gone because a fellow fire fighter called in sick that day.
At first they were just missing.
Thousands of New Yorkers posting pictures of loved ones on fences, posts, buildings, benches, on any surface. Have you seen my son, father, daughter, mother, husband, wife, sister, brother, cousin, aunt, uncle, friend? Call if you have information.
Thousands digging through the twisted rubble. Surely there must be survivors.
I read that even the rescue dogs became depressed.
Our Father Who Art In Heaven.
The Lord Is My Shepherd.
God Bless America, land that I love.
Spontaneous prayer.
Spontaneous song.
Holding each other up.
Falling to our knees together.
Thousands walking across the 59th Street Bridge.
Fighter jets flying overhead for days.
Blackest smoke filling the air.

A young mother knew, she just knew. She told her relatives she had a bad feeling. For months she had bad dreams. She had a baby girl, and she knew she was going to have to leave her. She was out with her husband and friends, her baby was home with other family members. She had to get to her, she was desperate to hold her to be with her. She told her family of a dream, there was smoke, and broken slabs of concrete fallen all about her, and Jesus was there, and He had His Crown of Thorns on His Head, and He was crying.
And this young mother knew. She just knew.
She was in one of those buildings that morning. She did not come home that night.







We still feel it here in New York. We still have the scars. We still have a hole in the ground.
We still have a hole in our heart.