Kingdom Bites

9-11. Need I say more? Without further explanation every American understands exactly what I am referring to, and are transported back in time to the place and activity they were engaged in when news broke and terror filled our country.

I’m taken back to my childhood home. I was sleeping in the makeshift bedroom my parents provided for me during college.  I had been up into the wee hours of the morning completing an assignment for school, and now was trying to catch up on sleep. I awoke as my bedroom door swung open and the bright sunlight pierced through the darkness of my room. As I stirred and squinted toward the doorway, my mother quickly blurted out - "Get up Eric,  we are at war."

That phrase, which was impossible to digest at the time, has remained fixed in time and constantly comes back to mind whenever my thoughts drift back to September 11, 2001. I don’t recall much more of the day. It was spent like many; fixed to the television, watching the carnage unfold on the eastern seaboard.

9-11. Need I say more? These simple numbers render back images, emotions, and memories of that horrific day. Images of flames and smoke billowing from towers, the pentagon cut in two, and wreckage piling up everywhere. The streets overflowing with people consumed with fear and questions. Rescue workers franticly trying to help the injured and trapped as they helplessly watched desperation set in, and dozens of people jumped to their death from the highest stories of the twin towers. These are the snapshots that are forever engraved in our memories.

9-11. Who would have ever thought numbers could cast such powerful imagery, carry such a massive weight,  trigger a collective memory, and connect and unite people together from all backgrounds and corners of life. Who would have thought that numbers could remind us of death, destruction, love, sacrifice, and hope? But they do.

Yet here are another set of numbers which do the same thing, have been doing so for much longer then a decade. 3-16.  These number remind us of love, sacrifice, death, hope and redemption. These numbers carry a great weight - the weight of sin, our sin. These numbers have the power not only to trigger our collective memories, but transform our mind. These numbers have the power to connect and truly unite anyone anywhere under one banner for all eternity.

3-16...or should I say 3:16. These numbers tell us the true hope is found not in the rebuilding of destroyed buildings, or the relentless American spirit. No, They remind us that true hope, unconditional love, and complete redemption is found in the person of Jesus Christ.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” - John 3:16.

In the verses following, Christ explains that for all who believe, true life, everlasting life, and true peace, His peace, will be given. Ten years later the loss is still great, the wounds are still raw. Many still grieve. Yet healing will never come by simply remembering the sacrifice and death of the many, but rather through recognizing and responding to the death and sacrifice of the One.

As we gather on the anniversary of the worst terror attack on US soil, let us not only remember the 3,000 people who died that day; but also The One who died for them, and us. True peace, hope, redemption, and healing will only come as we embrace Christ.