I still remember exactly where I was that morning. Most of us do. It was an ordinary Tuesday, coffee brewing, the day already moving, and then everything stopped. We watched the towers fall on live television. We watched the smoke rise over the Pentagon. We heard about a field in Pennsylvania where ordinary passengers decided that evil would not have the last word on their flight. In a matter of hours, the whole country changed.
Twenty-five years have passed. A quarter of a century. There are grown adults walking around today who were not even born when it happened, who know September 11th only as a date in a history book. But for those of us who lived it, the memory has not faded. We remember the fear. We remember the grief. But we also remember something else. We remember how we came together.
In the days that followed, church pews were full. Neighbors who had never spoken checked on one another. Flags went up on every porch. Strangers gave blood, gave money, gave time. For a season, we remembered that we belonged to each other. That is the part I never want to forget.
Scripture
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” (Psalm 46:1-3, NIV)
How I Understand This Scripture
When I read these words, I hear a people who knew what it was to watch their world shake. The writer is not pretending the mountains never fall. He is not saying trouble will pass us by. He is saying the opposite. The earth will give way. The waters will roar. And in the middle of all that shaking, God does not move. He is a refuge, which means a place you run to when everything else is coming down. He is strength, which means He holds you up when you have nothing left of your own.
The way I understand it, the psalm is not asking us to feel brave. It is telling us where safety actually lives. Not in a building. Not in the ground under our feet. In the One who does not fall when everything else does.
My Reflection
For years I thought the lesson of that day was about fear, and about how quickly the things we count on can disappear. And there is truth in that. But the older I get, the more I believe the deeper lesson is about where we run when the ground shakes. That morning, a lot of people who had not prayed in years found themselves praying. A lot of people who thought they were self-sufficient discovered how much they needed each other, and how much they needed God.
We lost so much on September 11th. We lost mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, firefighters and police officers who ran toward the danger while everyone else ran away. We should never stop honoring them. But I do not think the right way to remember them is to stay stuck in the fear of that day. I think the right way is to carry forward the good that rose out of it. The kindness. The courage. The togetherness. The reminder that life is short and people matter more than anything we build.
Evil tried to have the final word twenty-five years ago. It did not get it. Love outlasted it. It always does.
A Prayer
Father, we come to You today remembering. We remember the ones who died, and we lift up the families who still carry the loss. We thank You for the ones who ran toward the fire, who gave their lives so others could live. Comfort those who still grieve after all these years. Teach us to be a refuge for one another, the way You are a refuge for us. And when our own world shakes, remind us where to run. You do not fall. You do not fail. You are our ever-present help in trouble. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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