“Is today a blue or white shirt day? I think these brown shoes will do. Khaki trousers, the tan blazer, and ten minutes is enough in which to pull a shot of espresso. Down the elevator, greet the doorman, the subway heading south, walking to World Trade Plaza, up the elevator, office, greeting colleagues, computer, email, phone call, email… CRASH, heat, fire, horror… horror… horror, darkness, death.”
I wonder if any victims of 9/11 thought for a moment that this blue-skied day was to be their last.
On this ten year anniversary of the Twin Tower tragedy, as we pray for the families who retain the horrors of that evil day in their hearts—asking the Lord to fill them with redemption and peace—let us also consider how the inexplicable turn toward death which the victims encountered speaks to our today and tomorrows. As James puts it:
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:13-15).
