It was Tuesday morning in Brooklyn, New York. My husband Tracy had gotten dressed and was ready to leave with his colleagues to go to an overnight retreat for chaplains in Upstate NY. Since I didn't have any temp assignments that day, I could sleep in a little longer. I remember Tracy and I exchanging words of love, and him kissing me goodbye while I was in bed.
Later that morning, I decided to go and visit my great-aunt in the Bronx. Our church in Brooklyn was having their 10th anniversary that entire week, and I was scheduled to be on the program. Taking one of the trains back would be easier, since it stopped 2 blocks from the church. So I got on the #4, which normally went through Manhattan to the Bronx. I remember noticing that the train skipped Wall Street, which was one of the usual stops. I assumed that they had to make repairs in that area.
So the train continued on until 2 stops away from where I usually got off in the Bronx. Again, I didn't think much of it, assuming that repairs were being made. So I stepped onto the platform and approached some men who were standing around. "I guess they have to work on the trains again", I said.
"Oh no, it's not that", responded one of the men. "You haven't heard what happened?"
"No, what happened?"
"Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center"
I was in complete shock! Huh? "Which buildings?"
"Towers 1 and 2"
I was almost in a daze. I couldn't believe it! Then the thought dawned on me: the Lord spared my life!
The week before, my temp agency sent me on a clerical assignment in a company located in Tower 1 on the 52nd floor. While working there, I remember arriving early, looking around the Sephora store in the shopping mall area. I also spoke to the office manager, who told me that they were trying to fill the position I was temping in. We exchanged phone numbers, and she was going to get back to me the following week to let me know if she had spoken to my recruiter from the temp agency. After looking for a permanent job for so long, I was praying that this assignment would turn permanent. Now, for the first time in my life, I was actually grateful NOT to get the job! All the way to Auntie's house, I was thanking the Lord for sparing my life by keeping me from coming back there. On my way there, I met a Latina woman who was in tears. She shared with me that she just came from the area where the Twin Towers were! She was in the post office across the street from it, and she SAW dead bodies falling out of the sky, falling out of the trees. I sympathized with her, thanking God that she lived to tell it.
When I arrived at Auntie's house, I rang the door bell and knocked on the door. I was waiting longer than usual for her to come to the door. When she finally did, she apologized for taking so long, because she had been glued to the radio listening to the news of the tragedy. The next few hours were spent thanking the Lord for his mercy, receiving calls from my girlfriend Mimi (who told me of her brother and other classmates from college getting out of the Twin Towers in time before it collapsed!), and my grandmother in Brooklyn who told me that Tracy was trying to reach me. I assured Grandma that I was fine, and to let Tracy know that I was in the Bronx and would be back in Brooklyn later that evening.
By now, I had no idea that Tracy and his colleagues never got to leave Manhattan, because they immediately blocked it off during the tragedy. From the car they were all sitting in, they saw from a distance the second plane crash into the second building! My husband was worried sick, wondering if a temp assignment was the reason I wasn't home; wondering if I had been assigned anywhere in Manhattan that day (my next assignment, thank the Lord, was not until 2 days later, and it was in Brooklyn!). He ended up walking all the way from Manhattan to Queens, took a train to Church Avenue in Brooklyn and walked from there to our apartment (all the buses were full that day!).
I went on to church later that evening, wondering if we were going to even have a program that night with all this happening. When I came out of the subway, I saw a couple standing there on the sidewalk, holding their two teenage daughters in their arms. "I don't blame you one bit. Hug your babies!", I thought to myself. At that point, life was more important than money or jobs. When I arrived at our church, Kingsboro Temple of Seventh-day Adventists, no one was there except one brother. We expressed thankfulness to God for His mercy in sparing us, and we prayed together for those who lost loved ones in the Towers.
I had barely got up from kneeling when I looked up. There was Tracy coming down the aisle. We hugged each other immediately, so relieved to see each other alive and well. Later than night, as we lay in bed at home, Tracy said to me, "I was so worried, I thought that last night was the last time I would lay in bed with you, and that this morning was the last time I would kiss you goodbye". We were so grateful to have each other, nothing else mattered!
BTW, everyone on the 52nd floor, including the company I temped for, got out safely! Praise God!
Our church's anniversary week had even greater meaning for us all. Wednesday night prayer meeting was packed from the pulpit to the balcony. Testimonies flowed freely all week long of how the Lord spared lives that day by making people wake up late, miss their train, get sick, etc. We did have one casualty in our congregation: one precious couple lost their sister/sister-in-law in the Twin Towers. We surrounded them with love and comfort.
It has been exactly 21 years since September 11. I learned that day to cherish the presence of my loved ones while they are still with us. I learned to appreciate the divine intervention of the Lord in keeping me from the "blessing" of permanent employment in the Twin Towers, because my spared life was the greater gift. With every story I ever heard of those who survived or lost loved ones, no one cared about the loss of employment, or not being able to pay the bills. Material things mattered not! Every survivor was grateful to still be in the land of the living, and every bereaved family misses their loved one because of the life they lived while here on earth. People matter more than things!
If God had not spared me from the tragedy of Sept. 11, I would never have experienced the blessing of being a mother 6 years later in 2007. I would never have had a now-15-yr-old son to kiss and see off to high school in the mornings. I would never have celebrated 25 years of marriage this year with my beloved husband. There would have been NO Life More Abundantly Show…BUT GOD!
On this memorial day of September 11, let's learn to value each other more, and let the Lord put our priorities in order.
Comments