Always Remember

For this day we remember. A day that is in infamy. Where in a moment millions of lives were changed forever. As I write this memorial blog, I would like to take some passages from a blog written by Jennifer Hartline. She talks about losing innocence in 9/11 and I would like to add my own expiriencesd while highlighting her thoughts.

She Writes "There are many days when I’d give anything to trade in some life experience and get my innocence back.  That loss is the worst part about growing up.  The gradual, almost unnoticed fading away of our ideals, our hopes, our belief in goodness and even the possibility of things we can’t imagine.  Cynicism replaces optimism; guardedness shuts out generosity and faith; fear replaces trust.

Then there are the moments like September 11, 2001, when innocence is shattered forever in an instant by a horror we still can’t comprehend and never saw coming."

When I look back on that day. I remember how I was starting my last year in elementary. A fresh little guy, who couldn't wait to graduate and leave the school of nuns and move on to the next phase of growing up. I remember stomping in puddles, making snow angels, and overall trying to make the life of the nuns less than smooth. I took in the dew drops of summer mornings, an inhaled the salty smell of the sea. But then it all changed, in an instant something was off, a tilted wobbly scale turned over. At that age it didn't hit me right away, I just knew something wasn't write, that the country I was brought up to know was altered.


I couldn't get it back, we couldn't get it back. Jennifer writes, "One minute I was sleeping cuddled up with my firstborn baby, holding her tiny fingers, breathing in her intoxicating new-baby scent, surrounded by bunnies and pink blankets, and everything was perfect and pure.  The next minute the explosions in New York blew everything apart. She Continues, "And just like that, I realized that my daughter and I were no longer from the same country.

The country I grew up in was gone.  I could never pass it on to her.  She’ll know it only through stories and history books.  I don’t claim to be the first parent to ever feel this way, and there’ve surely been other page-turning events in our history that left two different Americas on either side.  But there’s no denying that 9/11 changed everything in a radical way."

The days are shifted, our lives altered. But in the wake of it all we still found hope. the only Hope; wile we may never look at an airplane the same way again, when we would pause for a split second on a trip, to scan the area, when we may hold a slight breath when sirens come down the street near a big building, know that the hardened of hearts need not be hardened. As she continues "We cannot go back to unsullied ignorance; we’ll never be naïve again.  But we really can be restored to purity again; our innocence can be renewed.  At the Cross we trade in our dirt and rubble and the Spotless Lamb washes us clean again.  Innocence Himself takes away our stain and gives us His own pure life.  “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  2 Cor 5:21"  

We have seen that even in the devastating attack that happened, a light that we could be drawn to was shown to us. That God is always with us. Whatever harm may befall us. Let us remain steady, and we can be made anew over an over again in Him

 So let us pray for those dearly departed. May God bless us all on this day of remembrance. Never Forget