Tom Canavan was buried alive when the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers collapsed on September 11, 2001.
He was on the forty-seventh floor of the North Tower when American Airlines Flight 11 struck his building at 8:46 a.m. He and his colleagues began to slowly descend the stairwells to safety when a second plane hit the South Tower.
Canavan and four of his colleagues emerged in an underground area filled with shops. Then the South Tower collapsed. He said, “I felt the thump, thump, and then I was just smashed to the ground like a bug. Everything went dark.”
He thought of his son’s upcoming third birthday party and how he would never meet the little girl his pregnant wife was carrying. He was saved, however, because a large cement wall fell over him and another man, creating a safe pocket in the pile of twisted steel rebar and debris. The two began crawling and digging their way up through the rubble until they saw a peephole of light and got their first breath of fresh air.
“I squeezed myself through the hole,” he said. A few more minutes underground and he would undoubtedly have perished when the North Tower collapsed.
Canavan said, “There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of something that day, whether it’s a person, whether it’s a noise, whether it’s a plane flying low. It’ll never go away. I’ve come to terms with that. When people use a phrase, ‘get over it.’ This isn’t something you get over.”
More Americans than ever before now agree that 9/11 permanently changed life in the US. New York Times columnist Charles Blow was right: “I am—we all are—covered forever with a bit of ash from those towers.”
As we consider the twenty first anniversary of 9/11, let’s identify four lessons from that tragic day that show us how much we need our Master’s leading and care today.
ONE: THE WORLD CAN CHANGE IN A MOMENT.
The Manhattan skyline before and after 9/11 is a powerful symbol of the unpredictability of the future and the speed at which life can change forever. Tomorrow is promised to no one. That’s why “now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
TWO: WE ARE ALL MORTAL.
James observed, “You are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). We have only today to be ready for eternity.
THREE: WHAT WE DON’T KNOW CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING.
Few Americans had heard of Osama bin Laden or al-Qaeda twenty one years ago. The 9/11 hijackers were “essentially hiding in plain sight,” as one official said later. In light of what we didn’t know on September 10, 2001, we should ask what we don’t know on September 10, 2022. You and I need to seek and follow God’s “perfect” will for each day because only he can see tomorrow and guide us to our best future (Romans 12:2).
FOUR: THIS FALLEN WORLD IS NOT OUR HOME.
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was crushed on 9/11 beneath the falling South Tower; it was the only house of worship destroyed in the attacks. Now a shrine to replace the church is nearing completion. But the true Church is not a building and thus cannot be destroyed. She will continue attacking the gates of hell until our Lord returns (Matthew 16:18).
You and I are eternal beings living in temporary bodies on a temporary planet. Every day brings us one day closer to the day when we step from death into life, from time into eternity. We can live with great confidence and courage, secure in the knowledge that the worst that can happen to us leads to the best that can happen to us.
Jesus’ promise is for each of us: “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:26).
“HE MUST WIN THE BATTLE”
As we mark the twenty first anniversary of 9/11, let us remember those who died and pray for their families. Let us remember the military heroes who died in the decades following to keep us safe and pray for their families as well.
And let us remember these facts: the world can change in a moment, we are all mortal, what we don’t know can change everything, and this fallen world is not our home. As a result, let us wear Jesus’ yoke today, trusting his leadership, redemption, and care until the day he leads us home.