I don’t know if you remember where you were when it happened but I do. I was living in Denver, Colorado at the time and had a day off from my job at the Hyatt Hotel downtown. I slowly woke up and decided to turn the TV on – I didn’t have many channels and as I was flipping through I landed on a religious channel where they were talking about some sort of incredible disaster.
I actually thought they were talking about some future thing they thought was going to happen according to the Bible book of “Revelations” but I soon realized this was something current – as I finally found a news channel it began to sink in… the unimaginable had happened. The U.S. had been attacked , two of its massive towers had been brought to their knees and the tragedy was almost unthinkable.
I phoned my work to see if they needed me to come in, a solemn sounding boss said that they were alright – just in shock.
In the following days I remember people from Denver that were in New York at the time were renting limos to drive them all they way home because all the flights were down. I remember buying a memorial T-shirt from a fireman on the street to raise funds for the victims…there was a rumour that the President was coming to the area to enter the “Nuclear Proof” military base inside a mountain ( just outside of Denver) – we honestly didn’t know if a nuclear attack would be next or not – it was all so confusing. Later on, “surreal” was the word everyone was using to describe it all.
To get to the point of this article I flip ahead a few years… my parents, knowing that I had been in the States when this had happened, found a picture in a magazine and gave it to me in a frame as a Christmas gift.
He told the story of how a fireman found the cross shape and was adamant that it was a sign. Whether the miraculous was part of that cross shape or not it reminded the pastor of the miracle of Jesus’ cross. He had been pulling corpses out of the debris, feeling there was no signs of life or hope – and then he was reminded of the cross – the source of all life ( including eternal) and hope.
The pastor, the firemen, 2 FBI agents and a police officer bowed their heads at that moment and prayed as they remembered the ultimate sacrifice made, an event that could give hope and life in even such a place as Ground Zero – the cross.
“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Galatians 6:14
P.S. This steel beam cross is now in the National September 11 Museum in NYC
