September 11

Today is a day that will live in infamy. I will never forget where I was when I heard about what was happening to our country. That is what today's post is about, my remembrance of that day and the days that followed.
I was living out in PA at the time, we were just outside Philadelphia. Joel and I were engaged, and planning our wedding. Well, I had not started my new nanny job yet, so I decided to go back to IL for a few weeks to do some wedding planning since that is where Joel and I were going to be getting married. So, at the time I was in IL visiting my parents. Along with planning my wedding, I was working for a Temp agency to make a little extra money. That week, I was working at Southern Illinois University in one of there Al a Carte stands, for the college students. My mom and I were in the car driving to SIU so I could work for the day. We heard on the radio what was happpening and I told mom that I did not want to go and work all day, I wanted to be home and know what was going on. Well, I did end up going to work and just having my eyes glued to the television set that was in the dining area. College kids were in and out all day, between their classes. It was a very surreal day, kids were not all talkative and loud like usual. That day at work drug on forever it seemed. I just wanted to get home and call Joel, and jsut talk to him. I wanted to know how things were out there and if everyone we knew was ok. I finally got off work that afternoon and went back to my parents house, and just sat and watched TV the rest of the day and late into the night it seemed. Just watching it over and over again. I remember feeling just like I did when I watched Pearl Harbor. I was in just a state of disbelief and amazement that human beings could do that to other human beings. How can people be that full of hatred that they would kill thousands of innocent people and children, etc. How could the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor without a second thought as to the fact that they were killing people who were just like themselves? How could the terrorists, on this day, fly airplanes into buildings and the Pentagon etc, and kill thousands of people. I think I will just never know how it feels to feel that way about other human beings. It is just unfathomable.
I know the reason, it is called SIN. Sin is what makes people not think twice about doing these horrific things to other people. That's right, we are all people, sinful people, weather christian, muslim, terrorist, Japanese, etc. God loved us and died for us, all of us. As deep as our hatred runs for others, the depths of God's love for EVERYONE is just as unfathomable. We need to show people God's love, and that he sent his only son to die for us and to pay our penalty for sin, so we would not have to suffer an eternity without him.
I pray that as we remember this day, and about how we, as finite humans felt on this day, that we will also use this remembrance to fuel our love and thankfulness to God for what he did for us.