Was God There?

Two impossibly tall towers were the landmarks of the World Trade Center complex. When they fell, the buildings became a pile of rubble 20 stories high. For someone like me raised in the farmlands of the Midwest, that is really high.

I just finished reading the account of a crisis chaplain who spent 68 days at Ground Zero starting about a week after 9-11.  Fascinating insights.

Picture the heap of rubble—everything on The Pile was organized chaos, heavy equipment operating 24/7, hundreds of people working—and always the sound of the Pile, itself, always moving.

However, if you lowered yourself into God’s House, the sound died away completely—really no explanation for it. Actually, this spot was located in part of a building adjacent to the WTC that was demolished as the towers went down. Inside God’s House, there were beams and girders twisted in such a way that they formed three crosses. One of the visible signs that God was there at Ground Zero.

An outstanding aspect of this huge disaster was the outpouring of volunteers and types of encouragement shown. Chaplain Giunta was a “military brat” having lived in several overseas countries as a youngster. He mentioned that America is unique not only because of our declaration of independence but also the way our citizens pull together in disasters such 9-11. The compassion, resolve, and grace under pressure seem to mark us as a people. That makes me proud to be an American, flawed though we are.

I liked the way Chaplain Guinta showed that God was “there” when 9-11 occurred and afterwards (of course, He is always with us). He was talking to a burly firefighter and the man was expressing his anger at the situation. The chaplain admitted that he too was angry and there was no doubt in his mind that God was angry. Angry that people had used their free will and chosen to do this to others. 

Because of radio transmitters, the firemen knew they had people in the rubble alive in the early hours but there was no way to get to them (remember the 20 story rubble pile they were dealing with). “God was with them to ease them into eternity,” said the chaplain.

And then there are the multitude of stories of how people missed rides, were sick, were told by a small voice to walk the other way, etc. That was not coincidence; that was God.

The chaplain included the story of a mother and son who both worked at the WTC. She was running late that day so they didn’t ride together as was their usual habit. She arrived within walking distance of the WTC just after the first plane hit and was stopped by a cell phone call. It was her son, already at work in the tower that was hit, telling her “Mom, do not come to work. Do not walk into the WTC or anywhere near it.” She survived, he did not.

It looks like this post turned into a book report, but it’s definitely a book worth reading.