It has been ten years since that awful day.
I remember that morning vividly, it was a beautiful sunny warm day with immense blue skies.
I remember exactly where I was when I first heard the radio announcer report that a plane had hit one of the Twin tower buildings. I like many others thought it was some small plane, there had been a similar incident sometime just before and I guessed it was a copy cat attempt.
After my meeting I travelled back to my office where I discovered that my manager had rigged a coat hanger to the office television. On those scrambled images I saw terror. I came to two realizations that day, one was that the earth had somehow grown significantly smaller and the other was that I needed to be with my beloved wife and two children. I knew no one in those buildings, or in the Pentagon or in Pennsylvania, but I felt this terrible sense of loss and knew that I needed to be with my family.
My son was 14 and my daughter was 10 and I knew that I needed to be with them on this horrible day. I needed to be there to assure them that in spite of the horrors that they would see portrayed on our television screen and in just about all media, that hope was not lost.
Evil does exist and it was demonstrated by Islamic terrorists that day and has been repeated since. But even those who would decry peace and a different way of life cannot destroy hope. I needed to tell my children that, I wanted them to know that what we believe is greater than the evil that was foisted upon the almost 3000 people that day. I wanted them to be reminded that the hope we believe in and have is built on love, patience, kindness, long suffering not on forcibly pushing beliefs on another person.
And I wanted to remind them about forgiveness. The forgiveness that would cause them to pray for the people who orchestrated these attacks because hatred cannot be held in ones heart if they are praying for a blessing upon someone else, even if they have caused a rain of jet fuel on innocent people.
The world has indeed become smaller, fear is greater but hope is not lost. Since that day ten years ago visions of service have been spoken into the lives of my children. They want to serve the people of this world to attempt to improve the lives of as many people as they can touch. One is training to be a Nurse and the other is a Pastor. They both want to serve people who have been disadvantaged. They care not for the colour of skin, social background or affinity to beliefs. They serve out of the hope that they have discovered and the grace of forgiveness that they know.
As I reflect, I too have learned to hope, to seek and grant forgiveness and hopefully to serve.
I have had numerous teachers whose lives demonstrated both hope and forgiveness. Certainly one was Jesus who taught us to "turn the other cheek" literally and figuratively who also said "do good to those who hate you" and "do to others as you would have them do to you". Another was a precious woman who could have been my mother who publicly forgave and comforted the man who murdered her daughter. Why? Because she loved Jesus more than she loved hatred.
I have made numerous mistakes over my lifetime. I trust that as I try to live my life in light of what I believe and because of the example of the lives of others that I will become better at becoming what I say I am.
Jesus also said: "Forgive others and you will be forgiven".
I trust that if I have said or done anything to hurt that you will forgive me. Hatred cannot continue, hope must rise even as the new buildings have begun to rise from the ashes of the terrorist attacks and the grace of forgiveness must permeate what we say and do. Otherwise we become like them, lives based on hatred and ignorance.
