Of all the articles I read following 9/11, there is one I will never forget. It told the story about how the Port Authority created a department for the sole purpose of returning personal items found during the recovery effort at Ground Zero.
It’s hard to believe that anything recognizable could be recovered amidst the thousands of tons of debris. But they found employee badges, earrings, necklaces, driver’s licenses, brief cases, cell phones, pagers, watches
(some of which were still ticking), keys, wedding bands, photographs and even sports memorabilia.
Some of the items would never be reclaimed – there were just too many gold wedding rings without initials or a date to link them to their appropriate couple. However many items were claimed. Employee badges that were warped by the heat of the fire are now all that many mothers and fathers have to show for a son or daughter who worked in the Twin Towers. Sometimes a serial number on a Palm Pilot could be linked to a husband or a wife. Photographs were placed on a website and claimed by surviving family members.
The article also told the story of a widow who received a phone call from the Port Authority telling her that they had found her husband’s car which had been parked in the WTC's garage at the time of the attacks. Now it was a twisted, mangled heap of rubble and they called to ask what she wanted to do with it.
Before sending it sent to the junkyard, the widow came to see it one last time. And as she inspected her husband’s car, she began to tell the recovery crew her husband's story – how he had saved up for the car; how he loved working in the WTC; where she was when she heard the news;
how September 11th is her birthday and that she and her husband had plans to go out to dinner later that night.
Those around her said nothing. They just listened quietly because they knew there was nothing that could be said. When they opened the trunk of the car, she looked inside and immediately began to cry. Inside the trunk was her birthday gift from her husband –
it was in perfect condition.
After I read this story, I was amazed by how so little survived the attacks yet this gift, wrapped in paper and a bow, sat undisturbed in the trunk of a car. And then I realized that I have heard this story before. Just like the mangled car, you would have thought that Jesus had nothing left to give when they pulled his body down from the cross.
The hands that had once restored health were now lifeless. The feet that had once walked on water were now pierced and broken. The eyes that had once searched a man's heart and soul were now dull and fixed. The body that children used to cling to was now placed in a stranger’s tomb.
Nobody at the cross saw any gift wrap or any bows – but through death the perfect gift had been given. God won us over from our own death by giving us his salvation through the death of his son, Jesus Christ.
None of the disciples could have ever imagined how the day Christ died on the cross would be a day of great victory. But if God could bring good out of the day his own son died then surely he can bring good out of a day like September 11th.
