On this day, we remember so many things. We remember the smoke, the sirens, the screams, the gray clouds roaring, the multitudes of people who lost identity and became one huge ash-covered mass of population.

We think about the faces on fliers, hung on streetposts and walls through the city, searching for the lost. The bright sunshine, an irony to the darkness of the day, shone throughout the morning. There were no clouds to cover the empty skies.

We think about the firefighters and the police officers rushing in, the people who didn’t run out, the soldiers who perished not on the battlefield in some distance land, but in the headquarters here at home. We think about “Let’s roll!” and those who fought back for us.

Most of all, we think about sin, the cause of our suffering. It’s Sunday, and maybe that’s appropriate. For today we remember that we live in a world filled with sin. We live in a world filled with death and destruction and pain and loss. How much more then do we need salvation?

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.

“It is finished.”

Amen.