As I listened to the names of those who died I was struck by how endless the list seemed to be. The names were read in a sorrowful dirge of music and strained voices. A list of names was given to be read by two people. At the end of a list two new people would read more names and so it went. Each group ended with a personal word to a loved one they had lost. The words of love ached out of each broken heart personal and painful.

If everyone gets their fifteen minutes of fame those who died on 911 were the victims of a cruel joke. The faces of those who died flashed on our TV screens for only a minute and then like their lives they were gone. The people who lost their lives were robbed of life, love, and their dreams. The way these people died is too horrible to even think about. Reading the names seemed to relive the horror and refresh the pain of such a senseless and terrible loss.

There were names from every nationality and country of the world. It is a wonderful tribute to our nation’s diversity. Young and old these beautiful faces shined out from our television they are now lost to us and to our nation. The faces seemed familiar they shared with us our humanity. It seemed there was a family resemblance in every person lost, there were no strangers that fateful day. The terrorists in their thirst for blood failed to see their might even be Muslims in those buildings. In reality hatred is blind.

Parents, brothers, sisters, fathers, aunts and uncles all wept for their loved ones. Our country was unified in mourning. The Bible tells us death is the last enemy. It is the unseen enemy in every life, at every home, in every workplace, in every nation across the globe. We must be ready to face death with faith knowing it is not the end for those in Christ but a transition from time to eternity, from the land of the living with its shadows and sorrows to the kingdom of God which is light and joy.

David said of His dead child, He will not return to me but I will one day go to Him To everyone who believes in Jesus Christ this is our blessed hope. The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Jesus told us to be of good cheer because He was going to prepare a place for us in His Fathers house. He told us if it were not so He would not have told us it is so. Jesus victory over death gives hope to the whole world that we have a Father who saw deaths assault upon His children and prepared for us deliverance and a release through His Son Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul tells us grave were is your victory; deaths were is your sting. We may not presently see those who have died and we will certainly miss them but time will bring us all together because of the love of our God.