Rememberance

The grey, rainy day seems to be echoing my heart today. It's hard to believe 6 years have past since 9/11. Seems hard to believe that on most days it is something I don't find myself thinking about at all. It's not that I've forgotten, nor will ever forget. How can we forget something that has so changed our nation, changed lives, changed what we do? For our family though, we weren't directly involved. Family members did not loose their lives, and do not reside in or our around the areas directly attacked. Maybe that is why we don't think of it regularly.

Regardless, it's on my mind today. On my heart. I've found myself praying for those that were involved again, as I have every year. I've found myself praying desperately for my 7 year old who for the first time realizes that something awful happened 6 years ago. A child that should not have to think about planes and buildings and death. He started asking questions a year ago after seeing a pamphlet at church on the literature shelf titled America Attacked. He could read the title and we tried our best to briefly answer his questions. It's not that we are trying to hide things from him, it's just the world is so big, and has so many things happening it that he simply at 7 does not need to know. We have found that we don't even watch the news as it is filled with images that are common today in the news, but would have seemed shocking when we were 7 years old. He doesn't need to be exposed to that now. All too soon he will be. So for now we answer questions, giving him the truth in the amounts that a 7 year old, our 7 year old can handle.

Since seeing the pamphlet at church the questions had subsided until Sunday night when the Extreme Home Makeover episode that he was watching was building a house for a man and his family who took time to help on that day 6 years ago. Questions began again, and this morning he wanted to know when the attacks happened, where was he when it happened and what were people doing today to remember. Again, truth, answers, prayer. We watched as President Bush, Laura, the Vice President and his wife observed a moment of silence. We prayed together and I found myself thanking God that it was raining and that I had decided to drive my children to school.

I will continue to answer his questions. I'm sure there will be more in the future. Over time maybe it will allow us all to understand better why this happened. In a few years perhaps it will be his sister asking. But for now at 5 all she really needs to know is that bad men, made a bad decision and many people died because of their decision. She also knows that only the day before that happened we found out that she would be in our lives. So even in the midst of the fear, and the questions we had hope for the future. Hope for a better world. Isn't that what we all really want after all? A better world. There are plenty of times that we will not know the answers to questions. Most of those questions start with "why". So today I'm remembering what happened, but I am thankful because even in the midst of this tragedy, of this horrible event that took place 6 years ago I do have hope. Hope in the fact that this is not the end. God has promised us a new life with Him someday if we put our trust in Him. We may not always know what the future holds, but He does, and He wants us to be with Him. So, today in the midst of the storm of life, I can be sure that there will be a new day just around the corner. As we remember what happened 6 years ago, that is the piece of sunlight that is shining down reminding us to keep looking forward.