Posted September 11, 2011
WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE PLANES FLEW?
I was sitting in Jan Priddy's class for a Precept Ministries Bible study when a television was rolled into the room and we were told, "One of the World Trade Center towers in New York has been hit by a plane!" Eyes riveted towards the television, all of us were in silent prayer. Someone to my right said, "What a horrible thing to happen."
"It's not over yet," I replied, a chill running down my spine.
What prompted me to speak those words, I don't know. It was almost as if for one second, I was looking through an open window into the future, seeing what was to come. And sure enough, as we watched, we witnessed the second plane hit.
Then my window into the future closed. I had no way of knowing two other planes were headed for Washington.
(c) AP Wide World Photos/William Kratzke
Some people now say, "Why do we keep dredging this up? It's too horrific to keep showing over and over."
For the same reason God wrote the Ten Commandments in stone for Moses to take to the Israelites.
Lest We Forget.
Moses hadn't been gone that long on his trek up the mountain. When he returned, the people were partying hard and worshipping a calf of gold, like an idol could save them. And idol that could be knocked over and didn't have the power to pick itself back up again. It was difficult for the Israelites to give up other religions that embraced child sacrifice and sex orgies that had crept into worship of the one true God. I've read where one look at a pornographic photo can be more addictive than the first snort of cocaine. So sexual addictions had to be fed.
God's message hadn't sunk in.
And, it's been said for a message to sink in, it has to be heard at least ten times. That's why Moses and his sister Miriam sang a song after God saved them by parting the waters of the Red Sea. Songs were sung in the ancient days to help people remember history. Even Native American Indians used to record stories on the outside of their teepees as a way of remembering, just as songwriter Alan Jackson wrote a ballad titled, "Where Were You" along with many other songwriters who were writing their own lyrics about the tragedy as a way to process thoughts and emotions.
We don't have to wear a ten-gallon hat to tell a ten-gallon story so our "tribe" won't forget.
And Moses did not want his "tribe"-- the Israelites -- to forget.
Neither did God. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 says this: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates."
Why would God have His people go to such extremes?
Because He knew mankind was visual. If they didn't write it down or hear it on a weekly basis, they would be lulled back into old vices, forgetting they'd covenanted with Him, promising to obey. A covenant in ancient days was serious business. It meant more than a contract of today. Those making an agreement cut animals in half -- except for the birds -- and walked through the bloody path in between, promising to uphold the agreement. Break a covenant back in Abraham's day, a person faced a death sentence. The same thing that happened to the animals who were slaughtered to make a bloody path to walk through would happen to the one who broke covenant.
For those who believe God's Word, what happened to our nation on 9/11 was an expanded version of His Story and the ongoing saga.
What we must remember is that history repeats itself.
We must tell our children and our grandchildren so they will be prepared and not lulled into a false sense of security, even though we know how our story ends and who finally wins the last battle. The next generations will need some reassurance. They need to know how to prepare. They need to know that Jesus the One and Only Son of God sent to save us is their true Savior and not an idol that has no power to pick itself up when it falls down.
So, we must remember.
(c) 2001 The Record, (Bergen County, NJ).
Lest we forget.
We must write our stories down for our grandchildren -- they'll want to know...
"Grandpa, grandmother, tell me a story -- where were you when the planes flew?"
If you would like to download this free article to attach to your own stories to hand down to your grandchildren, please email for permission ...vmoss@livingwaterfiction.com
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