September 11, 2001. About 8:30am.
I was reading Romans 8 in the food court at the Greenbriar Mall while waitingto pick up new contact lenses. I had bee trying to memorize this chapter for its encouragment, and had just reached these verses:
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
Frustrated that I was having some trouble with my memorization, I walked down to the eye doctor, hoping someone might have opened the office - which they had. The radio was playing in the background, and one of the employees came up and said, "Something's wrong in New York - a plane crash or something!"
I listened to the radio with them, until I got a phone call to pick up my 5 year old daughter at school - everyone was being sent home. She and I knelt on the sidewalk outside of Atlantic Shores Christian School in Virginia Beach, and prayed earnestly that God would be merciful to everyone in New York.
We got home, I turned on the TV and saw the Pentagon, a plane in Pennsylvania, and skyscrapers crumbling... Images I can never forget.
I remember. I will always remember...
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