What were you doing at 8:46 am on September 11, 2001?

I will never forget that day. It was Tuesday, 8:46 am.  I was working at Mission Services in Hamilton.  I was at my desk, at my computer, when my co-worker said that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre. We assumed that it some kind of fluke accident, but then 15 minutes later a plane crashed into the other tower. This was no accident!  I recall watching the attacks on TV and the buildings collapsing and the people running up the street, over and over on TV. There were so many stories. So many people looking for their loved ones, hoping they had somehow escaped.  It was like watching a horror movie on TV, but it was TRUE. This was not a movie and it was the saddest, most horrifying event I have ever seen. It seemed like the peace and freedom that we, as North Americans, had always enjoyed was suddenly violated in the most savage and extreme way.  There had been other tragedies like the shootings at Columbine, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Montreal Masacre. But these were not of the magnitude of the events on 9/11.  The events of 9/11 felt very different. We were under terrorist attack, and it could happen to us, anywhere.  There has always been suicide bombers, but this happened in Isreal or Syria. Far away places. Not the United States! Surely the goverment would be able to prevent such a thing, with all their intelligence and security.  It felt like something changed that day. Our North American world suddenly became unsafe. We became vulnerable to attack.  But really, the world was just as unsafe the day before this happened. The difference was that we didn't FEEL ELIGIBLE. We had a false sense of security until the unimaginable happened. ELIGIBLE. Usually we think of eligibility as a good thing. We are finally eligible for the senior's pension, or eligible for a govt. grant, or eligible to vote.  Ever think of being ELIGIBLE for tragedy. ELIGIBLE to join a club that you never wanted to join. You aren't eligible to join the bereavement group unless you are bereaved. I've seen a number of people interviewed who lost loved ones in 9/11 and they talked about being thrust into the spotlight because they had lost a husband, lost a wife, lost a father. This was a club they did not choose to join, they did want to be a part of. They didn't have a chance to say goodbye. They didn't envision a childhood without a Dad. Many lives were changed that day. There are also stories of people who should have been in that building but weren't, who should have been on one of the planes but weren't. Why were they spared, while others died?  Divine providence is a puzzling but sacred appointment, that none of us will miss, nor will we be late. Not something we can explain or figure out. In Ecclesiastes it says that "there is a time to be born and a time to die."  You may not lie in bed worrying about a terrorist attack, but do you know that your appointed time will surely come? Could it be tomorrow? No God, No peace, Know God, Know peace.