"this is history!"

I was in my room starting on schoolwork that Tuesday when Dad came into my room, hurriedly saying something about planes and telling me to go up to the bonus room to see it on TV. I didn't think it would be something exciting but I followed him up the stairs and sat on the couch anyway. It wasn't like an air show as I'd expected. Instead of planes doing flips or writing with in the air, smoke was pouring out of a building. Fire spewed out of it. Dad explained that one of the Twin Towers had been hit by a plane. "This is history!" I remember him saying.

I sat upstairs on the couch and watched with shock as I realized that people were dying in that building. I watched with millions of other television viewers as the second plane hit the other tower, then watched them both fall, sending people on the streets of New York running from the avalanche of ash and smoke.

It was indeed history. September 11, 2001. I was twelve but there are certain things that stick out about that day. It was the first time that death struck me in a really real way. It was only a few days after my great-grandfather's funeral so my mind was already thinking that way; I was also realizing the significance of death. I realized how real it was and how when it happens, it strikes something in people like almost nothing else. And watching so many people die, even though it was no one I'd ever met, really affected me. How could it not?

That's one day that I probably won't forget any time soon. It was seven years ago. Wow. Can't believe it's been so long.

I can't end this post without one more personal note: In many ways, that day also impacted my spiritual growth. Because of that I went to Frontlines for the first time (they had a special memorial thing that Friday night for all junior high kids and I just kept going after that...), I went to New York for my first mission trip (yep, at the ripe ol' age of 12)... who know what wouldn't have happened in me personally if September 11th hadn't happened? To me this is an example of how God works things out for good. I know good things happened because of that day. People were brought to the Lord, the country began to "Stand United", even if only for a time. And even though I'm just a small little pixel on the whole picture of this country's population, the repercussions of that morning influenced much of my future. God's so good, y'all. So good.

Dad was right, it was history. September 11th became personal for lots of people, including myself. It's a part of my history. And I think it's best that we don't forget.

[picture is from that funeral the weekend before 9-11]