#ThrowbackThursday: When We All Became Americans

I didn't know what to write at first.

Should I go through those fateful events that forever changed us? Should I recount that as a 16 year old, my choir class crammed into the student center to watch planes smashing to the the giants that were the World Trade Center? That we, as fragile teenagers living in suburbia, watched in horror as these megaliths, where some of our parents commuted to everyday, came crashing to the ground? Should I say that soon after we heard something about a plane smashing into a field in my state, and that I gazed at the afternoon sky suspiciously the entire week afterward? 

No.

I don't want to talk about any of that.

I thought better. 

Instead I thought about what changed about us. I thought about how, when many people were fleeing the scene of these disasters, police officers, EMTs, fire fighters, and just everyday people who were willing to help came running to the scene. Even at great risk to their own lives, they came. Many came from out of the city and the state just to help. Foundations and organizations were overwhelmed with donations, volunteers, and financial giving, just to help.

Genesis 50:20 comes to mind. Definitely what those who intended us evil turned into a moment of pride for our country. It's in times like these you see the mettle of a people. We learned what we were made of, and we learned how good we can be when it all looked so bad.

I thought about how we all became united after this. We redefined what it meant to be patriotic. We re shaped what it looked like to love your country. We all became American. 

And while we mourned for those lost, we mourned together. And when we prayed, we prayed together. And while we had to rebuild, we rebuilt together. 

And now as we remember, let us remember...together. 




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