I’ve come to think of it as “9/11 weather,” those brilliant blue clear sunny days we get in early September that remind me of kids going back to school, the parks filling up with soccer games, apples showing up in the farmers’ markets…and that terrible disaster that still remains for me an ache on the New York skyline. I look downtown and see a hole where two giant buildings loomed.
We bound back from tragedy. We humans are ever resourceful. That’s how God made us. New York has certainly bounced back and moved on to other challenges, the current one being a dreary economy.
But these days of 9/11 weather serve as reminders of the losses that were suffered. As we move on, we pause and reflect. God made us like that too.
I pray for the families whose homes will forever feel empty like that bit of New York sky. I pray for the survivors who still feel terror in their hearts at a sudden loud sound or the smell of smoke or the nightmares that wake them in the night. And I pray for those who call themselves our enemies because Jesus especially urged us to pray for our enemies. Would that we could all understand each other so such tragedies will never happen on any continent.
That’s what 9/11 weather does. It makes me want to pray. The peace the world aches for can start with a beautiful blue clear sunny September day.
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Rick Hamlin is the executive editor at GUIDEPOSTS.
