Where was God on 9/11/01?

(September 11, 2011) I just got back from a very moving 10th anniversary commemoration of 9/11. One speaker addressed the question: Where was God on 9/11, the beautiful Tuesday morning in 2001 when some 3,000 people were killed on American soil as a result of crashes caused by Islamist terrorists who had commandeered four commercial passenger jetliners. Two slammed into the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., and another into a field in central Pennsylvania. His answer follows.

God was with those who comforted their colleagues as they faced certain death trapped on the upper floors of the World Trade Center above where the terrorists' intentionally crashed American Airlines planes into Towers 1 and 2.

God was with area first-responders, firemen, police, EMTs and security personnel, who raced into the burning towers to lead people there to safety, then dying when the two buildings collapsed in less than two hours.

God was with a slight Oriental man who carried a crippled woman he did not know on his back down many flights of stairs escaping from the smoke and devastation in Tower 2.

God was aboard United Flight 93 on its way from Newark to California when the 40 passengers and crew voted to take down their plane over Pennsylvania with its hijackers to prevent an attack on the nation's capital. They all perished deep in a remote field in Shanksville, population 245.

God was in Canada's Gander, Newfoundland, whose residents welcomed into their homes and facilities hundreds of travelers, dubbed "the plane people," diverted there on planes when U.S. air space was closed because of the attacks. Some of the friendships formed at that time remain to this day.

God was at St. Paul's Chapel, located across from the lower Manhattan site of the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers yet spared for a higher purpose. Opened in 1766, it is Manhattan's oldest public building in continuous use -- a place where George Washington worshiped and 9/11 recovery workers received round-the-clock care. One old woman came there and left her cane for anyone who needed it.

God was with those who came for weeks afterward to search for human remains at the demolished World Trade Center without concern for their own well-being.

Something to think about.

Would you like to communicate your thoughts about 9/11 or other current events? Recorder Community Newspapers hosts some 60 blogs here at its website for community individuals and organization leaders to share their comments and news. Anyone interested in this free service is invited to contact me at (908) 832-7420 or panderson@recordernewspapers.com and I will give you the details. All you need is an Internet connection device and an e-mail.