Thoughts on 9/11

Sheets of paper survived while steel and concrete did not.
http://www.drjudywood.com/articles/DEW/StarWarsBeam3.html;
photo credit: Terry Schmidt

This weekend, watching reruns of the dust-filled streets of lower Manhattan, I realized, "THAT is the essence of the two beautiful fallen towers." They were always only dust and ashes, albeit temporarily held together by physical properties I can't explain. It's always only a matter of time before something -- everything -- reduces to dust.

The new tower being erected in their place seems to be a denial of that reality. It must be hubris to say it will be the safest building in the world . . . something akin to what they said about the tower in Genesis 11: "Let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly" -- like the super-strong cement they're using in the "Freedom Tower." (A news feature showed the dry ingredients that go into that cement -- so much like the residue seen above.)  "Let's build a tower whose top is in the heavens" -- at 1776 feet in the air, the builders of 1 World Trade Center have no illusions of reaching God, but they want their tower to achieve the distinction of tallest, if only of the Western hemisphere. (And don't miss the irony of the address -- "one world" -- as in, "Let's not be scattered over the face of the earth.")

Well, maybe it's true this building will be the safest in the world, but that also might not be saying much. No building can protect you from the wrath of God. The best of what man can do is still only dust and ashes. And when that day comes, men will beg for rocks to fall on them (Rev. 6:16-17).

And while the memorial committee succeeded by recognizing the loss of babies still in the wombs of 11 mothers who died on 9/11, our nation has not, in its paroxysm of grief, seen fit to repent the slaughter of countless unborn children in abortion. That was the lesson of the fallen tower of Siloam (Luke 13:1-5).