Habakkuk 2:1
“I will stand at my guard post
And station myself on the watchtower;
And I will keep watch to see what He will say to me,
And how I may reply when I am reprimanded.”
Today we mark the 20th Anniversary of 9/11, and on this day I thought it appropriate to share this riveting account written by one of the Ground Zero chaplains, Jim Jenkins. In his book, From Rubble to Redemption,* he has included this haunting reflection from the first days of the tragedy which is entitled,
The Sound
“I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen as the news coverage opened a 24-hour window into everything that took place at Ground Zero. And there was that eerie sound that continued throughout the coverage.
What is it?
It reminds me of something, yet I can’t quite place it.
It sounded like the smoke alarm in your house when there is a power outage. It also sounded a lot like crickets on a sultry summer night. Commentators on that early aerial footage at Ground Zero call it “chirping.” As it turned out, what I saw that first night on TV and—more to the point—when I heard, was the sound of firefighters buried in the rubble.
Firefighters wear a Personal Alert Safety System (PASS) device that sounds an alarm to notify others when they are in trouble. If the firefighter in question still has the ability, they can trigger it themselves. But the alarm can also be triggered automatically when a firefighter has not moved for a certain amount of time.
That haunting sound from the pile as I watched news coverage was the chirping of PASS alarms from 300 heroic souls who were trapped.
They are alone…
They are unable to move…
Their supply of oxygen is running out…
Twenty years after the 9/11 attacks, there is another type of rubble and a whole lot of noise taking place in our nation. But, still, if you listen carefully, there are other sounds. Warning sounds. Distress calls.
We must not become accustomed to rubble; reconciled with ruin. There are clear warning signs in history as well as prophetic warnings of impending disaster.
We ignore the chirps at our peril. “
Father in heaven, how could it be that we are twenty years beyond that horrible day and yet we have learned so little? We promised to “never forget” and yet as a nation we have done just that. Please, O God, forgive our indifference, our lack of diligence, our forgetfulness to remember the lessons from that day. Just as surely as those brave souls who wore the alarm devices needed rescuing, we, too, need rescuing. Let us not ignore the signals You are sending. Hear our prayer, dear Lord. In Your name and for Your sake we ask. Amen.
~ painting, “American Grace” by Allan Albaitis
*portions taken from From Rubble to Redemption by Jim Jenkins
