In prayer this morning, I sat and allowed my mind to totally relax so that I might hear the still quiet voice of our Father in heaven, I blocked out all noise and I waited for his direction, for the feeling of the Holy Spirit to wash over me, I began thinking of those that have had their worlds ripped from their hands, for those who, right this very moment, were faced with the truths that life as they have known it is no more, for those who are still waiting to hear that the names on the "unaccounted" list are safe, for those who lost children, spouses, parents, friends...how a mere few minutes of devastation has changed all that they knew as normal. And I wondered...are there blessings to be felt in these peoples lives, can they stand and say...."I am so blessed", can they look at the people who stand with nothing left and say, "count your blessings!" Can they???? I have had so much sadness in my lifetime, but still when I look back upon those times, I can honestly see how very blessed I was. When I heard recounts of the horrific day of September 11, 2001, I have heard people talk about the blessings that took place that day, HOW??? When I have talked to people who have been survivors of car accidents, house fires, plane crashes, earthquakes, hurricanes, and they say...."we are truly blessed" I ask HOW???? This morning I asked God to be with each of the survivors, to be with each of the ones who have no homes to go to, to be with each of those who are sitting in open mouthed wonder asking how will I put one foot in front of the other and move forward, how will we rebuild, how will we replace, how will we say goodbye to our lost ones, how...how...how??? I ask each of you today to look back at times in your life when something horrible took place, to really go back and look at the outcome, to see what the blessing in each incident was...I am sure you have said to yourself and to others this last few day..."If I had been here, this would have happened" " If so and so would have left when they were going to , this would have happened" "We are so lucky that bla, bla, bla..." I do not think that "luck" was the catalyst here, I know that you received blessings! Today it may not feel as if you have, when you stand at that memorial service, when you feel the great sadness wash over you in hearing the stories, when you say goodbye to those who have gone much to early in your eyes...but soon, you will begin to realize that there were so many blessings that took place in your lives that day, that you can and will stand up and move forward with a stronger sense of God being with you, that you will tilt your head toward the heavens and know that he is with you in all things. Today as you stand at that service, weep with and open heart, let the sadness inside of your being be released, let all of the bad go and welcome the dawn of a new day with determination and a stronger faith than you have ever had. Count those blessings...each and every one of them, for a miracle has taken place, God has manifested his love in each of you. There are no answers to your question as to why certain ones were taken on the heavenly journey, the only answer I can see is that God had a greater need for them with him than we had for them here. They passed the test of time and were lifted on angels wings, serenaded by the great celestial orchestra, and placed safely inside the gates to walk the golden road with our Savior, Jesus Christ and our creator, our Father in Heaven. They are gone form you physically but another of the great blessings that we are given each day for all of our lives is "memory" You have them with you in every breath you take, the memory of them is inside you , in things that you see, in smells, in sounds....they are all around! God's blessings are so abundant that we only experience a small bite, we cannot even being to imagine how many times on a daily basis that his breath saves us. I ask that each of you bow your heads with me, and thank him for his mercy, his grace, his protection and his love... thank him for the blessings in your life, the good and the not so good, thank him for the seen blessings and for all of the unseen blessings. I pray that as you go through this day that you are filled with warmth and knowledge that through him all things are possible, that the rebuild has to begin within you and that with faith you will achieve your goals. My love to each of you in the name of our Savior..Jesus Christ.
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