Where were you on 9/11?

Especially this time of year the question is "Where were you on 9/11?"  Every American knows exactly where they were and what they were doing when the news came....

I was in Moscow. Far from home. Far from my loved ones. The next day I was to fly home. I had been in Russia visiting orphanages and assessing how we could bring aid and help to their desperate situations. It had been an intense week and I was emotionally and physically drained. I was more than ready to go back to the States and my precious husband.  Our team was just rushing out the door to catch a ride to the train station when the phone rang. It was our translator's mother. "America is under siege!" That was all that she knew and we didn't have time to turn on the news. We ran to the bus with very heavy confused hearts. When we got to the train station the translator ran into the bar to see the news while we got our tickets and got on the train. She reported that New York had been bombed and that planes were headed to the White House.

The radio was broadcast over the train's loud speakers so we could learn all that was happening. We sat in our little sleeper car, thousands of miles away from home and loved ones and heard a minute-by-minute account of what was happening.

Numb. In shock. And very isolated. Not able to even pray. Not knowing when we would be able to return. The expectation in Europe and Russia was that the US would hit and hit hard~ some place. Everyone expected immediate retaliation. A beginning of World War 3. In spite of all of this~ I felt God very close. I could hear His very quiet, firm voice comforting me, instructing me and keeping me from going over the edge.

It was a full two weeks before I was able to fly into New York and return to my loved ones.

On this day of remembering we reflect on what happened, the great loss of life and the condition of our world. Something shifted that day for America. In one fell-swoop, we were rushed into the painful world that many have lived under for decades~ terror and hatred with no real purpose~ only destruction. A shaking that went into the very soul of the country. A stripping away of some of our naivete.

Where is our comfort? Where do we find perspective? We look heavenward. Seated on His throne, the Creator of the universe has all in His hands. He may not answer our 'Why?' but He will answer our 'What do you want me to learn?' 

 And as we sit before Him, our brokenness and pain offered to Him we can hear His voice quietly telling us:

"... I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation:

but be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world.  " 

May His peace fill our hearts today..... and always.