Choose Life

Revelation 7:9,14 – After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues. These are they who have come out of the great tribulation. (RSV)

Where John's Revelation describes only those who are rescued eternally with Christ's blood, a different cross-section of humanity was represented in those recently fallen towers: man, woman, white, black, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, CEO and janitor. Therefore, this crime, or this act of war, if you prefer, was not only committed against the United States, or against Christians, but against humanity in general. Terrorism is just that — a war against all, crime against life. Terrorists do not kill out of rage, or even out of desperation. They kill out of choice, out of the intellectual and moral persuasion that nothing, not even civilization, as we know it, is more precious than their selfish cause.

In the days that have followed, both the people of New York and people around the world have united in a spirit of cooperation, and greater appreciation for life, having witnessed such a calloused disregard for life. Those who both love and respect life, respect it even more since that Tuesday, because life's fragility, and its value, have been greatly impressed upon us. Sadly, we seldom appreciate fully what we have, until it's gone. Like a cancer, this radical, deadly element has infiltrated the body of humanity, seeking to destroy everything but its own kind. In any cancer treatment, the doctor must rid the body of the destructive cells, must cut them out, or else the whole body is in danger, for cancer starts in one place, and spreads to another, until the whole body is sick. Humanity must unite around the ideals that unite it, around its highest and most idealistic common values, those that make a deity worthy of the name, God. The only god who could have inspired the events that Tuesday is Satan, the resister and destroyer of all that is life and light. We pray that God rid will the body of mankind of this cancer, by whatever means He sees fit, so that life may continue, and this sickness be healed.

The 5000 and more who died need not have died in vain. They can go down in history as a miracle, not as a catastrophe, if their loss is able to unite the peoples of the world and bring us back to a proper appreciation of what life is about, reminding all that God is about life, not death. If this tragedy can send each of us back to our God, seeking an ever-greater appreciation for the sanctity of life, then the terrorists will have failed miserably. Let us each do our part to ensure their failure.

Prayer: As Christians, we come to You, Father, praying that Your will be done in this matter, and all that comes from it. May all who love life come to You, that You may give them peace through Christ — even those who may yet not know him. Amen.