Fourteen years ago I took my second trip to New York City. My daughter Wendy was turning eighteen and planning a trip to Switzerland and she?d never flown. I wanted to be with her for her first flying experience. So off we go into the wild blue yonder. I?ll never forget the look on her face when we took off. Amazing memories were made on that trip.
One that?s especially etched in my mind is standing at the base of The World Trade Center Towers. I remember looking up and thinking, how big and, how beautiful. The grounds around the towers were so well kept. It was almost like being in a park. And to think four years later airplanes manned by men who were filled with hated would shatter the towers? and so many lives.
Such a shame we lost those landmarks, but buildings can be repaired and towers re-built. The real shock lies in the fact that one minute life was normal, then the next instant, mayhem. One morning a little girl or boy said goodbye to their mommy or daddy, fully expecting them to be back at their school that afternoon to pick them up, but they were never to see them again. Can you imagine the thoughts of those children as they waited for their parents to come and get them?
9-11 was the biggest world catastrophe of my lifetime. Others recall world wars, Pearl Harbor, earthquakes, hurricanes and tidal waves, but I?ll always remember that morning as one that changed our lives forever. After the reality of what had happened sank in I left work and traveled a few miles to my church. I had a key to our old sanctuary so I slipped in and made my way to the alter. Sinking down to my knees I prayed. Just like I had forty-three years before when I?d prayed for Jesus to come into my heart. I prayed for all the ones who had died that day and their families, for the un-known, myself, and for the ones who held so much hate in their hearts. The horror of that day was staggering.
For years and sometimes even now, when I hear a plane over head I wonder if friend or foe is flying it. Yes, lives and landscapes were changed on September 11, 2001, New York City, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. I also know that hearts were changed. Non-believers quickly sought refuge in God and became believers.
That brings me to the main point of this blog. If we think 9-11 was one of the worst things to happen in history, think about the chaos that will occur in this world when Jesus appears and calls His children home. Air plane pilots, bus drivers, train and subway engineers, and mom?s and dad?s driving vehicles will one moment be there, then in the twinkling of an eye they will have disappeared. I don?t know what I?ll be doing when The Lord comes to get me and it doesn?t really matter. All I know is that I?ll be gone, whether from the grave or taken up alive.
The world?s worst disaster will be left to those who have never accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. No one knows the hour or day, but God?s word promises that it will happen. The question I have for you is, are you ready? I pray you are, because I?d hate to have my friends, loved ones, or even my enemies left behind.
1 Thessalonians 4: 16 ? 18
16) For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17) Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18) Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
As you read this I hope you are comforted, if not, then you probably have some un-resolved business with God. Think about it.
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God bless you Sarah for your witness on this electronic highway that carries so much evil. Satan finds a way to use anything as a tool to win God’s children and it’s up to us to win them for Christ. Romans 12:2