This Patriot Day 2018, my birthday, the newsletter from my church included the following survival story. Don’t worry, it has a good ending…
For students in high school it’s part of their history class, but for us who were glued to our television sets that morning 17 years ago today, we remember. We not only remember where we were when we first heard the news, but we remember the anger and the fear and the avalanche of emotions that came crashing in on us.
We watched in horror as our country was under attack and we didn’t know what would happen that day, or the next day or the next week. Churches filled as we prayed together. Hard questions were raised, like where is God?
We know the Bible verse, Jesus told us, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart I have overcome the world.”
(John 16:33 NIV)
But what does that mean for us?
Genelle Guzman-McMillan experienced what it meant 17 years ago. She was the last person rescued from the rubble at
Ground Zero.
This is what she said, “Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had left the 64th floor of the North Tower earlier and escaped unharmed. What if I hadn’t been buried in the debris, the ground falling out beneath me at the 13th floor as I was racing to get out of the building? What if I hadn’t been stuck under rubble for 27 hours before rescuers finally found me? I would have been grateful, but I wouldn’t have looked any deeper at my life. I would have chalked my survival up to quick thinking or quick moving or plain good luck. I would have gone on with my life avoiding God the way I had ever since I lost my mom to cancer in 1999.
Instead I lay there trapped in the dark after the building collapsed, rethinking my life. I ended up doing what my mom would have done. I prayed. Well, it was more like pleading, screaming, promising, asking for some sort of miracle until I pushed my hand through a few inches of rubble above my head and felt someone’s warm hand close around mine.
Then I heard a male voice say the four sweetest words I have ever heard: “I’ve got you, Genelle.” I clung as much to his reassuring voice as his strong hand. “My name is Paul,” he said. “You’re going to be okay. They’re going to get you out soon.”
Then she said, “The ache in my right leg, the throbbing in my head, faded as I held his hand and listened. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” Paul said. “They’re almost here. Hang on.”
Finally I saw a glimmer of light and heard other voices and distant sirens. Two volunteers from Massachusetts… found me and with the help of a police officer from Canada… and his search-and-rescue dog Traker, “They’re here,” Paul said. “You’re in good hands now. I’m going to go and let them do their jobs and get you out.”
After Genelle recovered she was able to find those who carried her out, and she was able to thank them, but try as she might she was never able to find Paul. She says now she doesn’t know if Paul was an angel or a man – but what she knows is when she cried to God a strong hand reached out to her when she was buried alive, and when she cried out to God a reassuring voice called her by name and she has never been the same again. Jesus overcame the world.
And folks, my prayer is we never have to face again what we faced 17 years ago; my prayer is that we would never have to face those unexpected, violent storms of life – but if we do, what I know is, evil will never triumph over good as long as there are men and women like our first responders. And God will respond to the cries of His people.
God will reach out to you.
God will be there.
Because He loves you, and because His grace is amazing, know that while we’re in this world we will have trouble, but take heart, Jesus has overcome the world. In the midst of your storm, in the midst of your rubble, in the midst of your battle cry out to Him.
WM
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