I woke up last year on 9/11, and called to mind immediately the many lives marked by 9/11, and the many still reviewing each “last” from that awful day.
The last hug or hand-hold, the last morning routine with someone, the last ordinary moments that are now tightly held, periodically dusted off, and reviewed in hope of finding some new detail.
I wrote down my prayer last year, and have re-visited it since. When I feel my arms aren’t long enough to do all that needs doing, I remember that they are long enough to pray. I have seen answered prayers; I assure you that God is still here. So here is my prayer this year. I hope you will add your own voice.
Lord Almighty, God of Creation,
As you promise, hear my prayer to you for the families and the friends of each person lost eight years ago on that terrible day. Rain on them grace, as they lie awake recalling the last hours. Open their hearts to the real and certain truth that you walked beside each soul, that you were with each dying person, that you will not leave us.
Where lack of money and unanswered need has bound people to unproductive and unhappy lives after their 9/11 losses, raise up workers with eyes that see and ears that hear to meet those needs and remove what binds. Look with favor on the work of our hands.
Where over-abundant money has resulted in strife and torn families, where people try to bind deep wounds with money, things, alcohol, or any false bandage, open their hearts to see blessings and to recognize healing truth. Teach their hearts to know the joy of choosing to love and choosing to give.
In a world with terrorists such as these, with other horrors across the globe, please guide the decisions of those who govern. Let them not compound evil with evil, but instead guide them to govern in truth, that people’s lives may be protected and preserved to seek you and know you.
Stir up a consuming love for you in all who know you, that they will passionately work out your plan and grow in love for your creation. Encourage all who love you to seek justice, to encourage the oppressed, to defend the cause of the fatherless, and plead the cause of the widow. Let our faith be a living faith, practiced in an abundance of good works, for a world lost in so much darkness.
Let us then love you with all our heart, and all our soul, and all our mind, and all our strength. Let us then love our neighbor as ourself.
