May We Never Forget
Joey and Carla Link
September 11th, 2019
Every year when September 11 rolls around, I remember a UPS man coming to our home to deliver some packages and he asked me if I saw what happened in New York City. He asked me to turn on the news so we could find out more. I turned the TV on and together we watched a second plane fly into the Twin Towers in what is now known as the worst terror attack in the United States.
I and many others were encouraged by another event that day. Another devastating hit was meant to be on the US Capitol but the plane never made it further than a field in Pennsylvania. Todd Beamer was a passenger on that plane. While talking to his wife Lisa on the phone, he learned about the other attacks. Realizing his plane was being taken over by terrorists, Todd, a strong Christian and several others on the flight chose to take on the terrorists so the plane would go down where few if any outside the passengers would get hurt. I have often thought of Jesus words in Matthew 16:24-26 in relationship to what Todd Beamer and others on the plane did that day.
“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
Todd Beamer, a strong Christian, made a God-thinking decision that day. Knowing he would most likely die, he didn’t let that stop him. He could have sat down in his seat and spent the remaining minutes of his life thinking about his wife and kids, wondering what their lives would be like without him. But he didn’t. He got a group of passengers together and they stormed the cockpit. While fighting with the terrorists, the plane went down into a huge open field.
Are your kids ready to make God-thinking decisions in such a time as September 11th? What would they need to make that kind of a decision? Todd Beamer didn’t have any advance warning so he couldn’t prepare. What he did have was a heart that loved God, lived by what the Bible said, possessed leadership skills that determined in his mind what the right thing to do was and then he didn’t hesitate to do it. Even if your kids weren’t born with the temperament of a leader, they can learn those skills or be trained how to know who and what to follow.
If you get this blog by email, today is the anniversary of September 11th. What do you plan to do to honor the lives lost that day? Why not visit your library and check out “Let’s Roll” by Lisa Beamer. Read it aloud together as a family if your kids are 10 years of age and above.
Carla & I intend to re-read it together. Last year we were on a trip and found ourselves near this field in Pennsylvania. We visited it on September 12thand found they were taking down the stands from a ceremony the day before. The memorial is profound and very insightful about the events of that terrible day, including those of the Twin Towers. We walked along a path from the museum that took us to a cement wall standing tall in the field. Every victim had a small plaque on the wall. As we stood there, we prayed for the families of those who knew God who were on that plane and asked that they would, if they had not already, forgive the terrorists so their hearts could move on. For those who did not know God at the time of their deaths, and we prayed that most did, we prayed for their families and that they would find Him before their time came.
What really disturbed me, after being reminded of all that transpired that day, is how few flowers and other memorabilia had been left at the base of the wall under the plaques. To that I only have one thing to say, especially to those of you reading this who were young children that day–
May We Never Forget