A man and a woman jumping from the fire-filled World Trade
Tower-holding hands as they jump together.
One of the heroes on Flight 93 who stopped the plane from
reaching its intended target, whose last words before the phone
went dead, as he led those who helped him thwart the hijackers,
were an energetic
”
You ready? OK, let’s roll!
”
A man and a woman jumping from the fire-filled World Trade Tower-holding hands as they jump together.
One of the heroes on Flight 93 who stopped the plane from reaching its intended target, whose last words before the phone went dead, as he led those who helped him thwart the hijackers, were an energetic “You ready? OK, let’s roll!”
Flight attendant Sandy Bradshaw’s last words to her husband: “We’re going to throw water on them and try to take the airplane back over. Phil, everyone’s running to first class. I’ve got to go. Bye.”
A little boy in Canada collecting hundreds of pairs of gloves to send to New York rescue workers because he noticed on the news that their hands were cut and bleeding.
Images horrific, yet spirit still shining through the rubble.
Children making sandwiches to feed the persistent and dedicated rescue workers, tucking a chocolate kiss into each one before passing them out.
All the wide-trunked trees lining the street in my neighborhood tied in swaths of red, white, and blue scarf, ribbon, and bows.
K-Mart placing full-page American flags in the newspaper, and people taping those paper flags to the backs of their cars and trucks.
Pastors in Gilroy churches struggling to craft sermons with words adequate to meet the circumstances the first Sunday after the attack, trying to speak messages of peace from the pulpit when others are anxious for war.
A Pakistani shop keeper, unable to look me in the eye, until I force him to finally look up, and when I say a simple “Hello,” he bursts into tears.
The 5-year-old who asks if she can call her dad in heaven on his cell phone.
Two men in a World Trade Tower working for more than an hour to carry a paraplegic man down 68 flights of stairs, risking everything to save a man whose name they do not even know.
Theologian Frederick Beuchner describes Peace as “Not the absence of struggle, but the presence of LOVE.”
Let us pray that Love continues to permeate this world. And may we endeavor to be the vessels of choice for this high deed.
If we need a weapon, our weapon should be SPIRIT – one that can never be taken away, by anybody, under any circumstance.
Nothing can overcome that, in any time or place.
We need to anoint ourselves with courage.
More touching even than the flags waving, a simple phrase traced in dust and ash by someone’s finger on a wrecked car window in New York City: “God Bless America.”
God bless America, indeed.
