Today marks one month since September 11th's violent tragedy.
Many things are clearer now:
- We see that when terrorist acts brought our country to its knees, we tarried there to pray.
- We found in our common sorrow and outrage a unity deeper than our differences.
- We mined our resources to help one another, from heartfelt praying, to words of comfort and support, to giving of time and skills to rescue and rebuild, to giving of money to aid the victims.
- We sought God and found the heavenly Father still in control of history, we recognized the suffering Savior present with all those who perished and who mourn, and we felt the Spirit of God with us in power to embrace and renew us.
And now we seek both a just accounting and a better way of relating to the nations of the world, so that terrorism might be stopped by rendering it useless. What a wonderful plan (and it is of divine design) -- to destroy one's enemies by making them one's friends.
Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard, who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip. For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. (Psalm 66:8-9)
In the furnace of terror and destruction, we have found ourselves shaped
into a more compassionate, a more resolute, a more aware people.
May we stay on course and, with God's help, become a more responsible
and visionary people, giving cause for the peoples of the world to praise God.