9/11: First Responders and the Cross

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose …

If God is for us, who can be against us? … Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? …

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.(Romans 8:28-39)

On this 22^nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I am pressed to pause once again to remember (we must NEVER forget) our fallen and pray for the survivors and those who lost both family and friends (red, blue and natural) on this “day of infamy”. And, especially for those of us where were there (physically and in spirit) on that fateful day and those that followed, we remember a powerful symbol of hope found in the midst of the rubble at Ground Zero: the 9/11 Cross (for genuine believers, the cross is a powerful reminder that Jesus is always with us and will never leave us, especially in our darkest hours).

On this, our friends with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team (born out of the 9/11 attacks) shared the following some years ago which I’ve adapted for our purposes here:

The rubble pile at Ground Zero was 10 stories high. Yet nothing was identifiable. Three weeks after the 9/11 attacks, and the scene in lower Manhattan was defined by this enormous mound of smoldering destruction, death and sorrow.

Anne Bybee struggled to find one thing of significance. “It was just this mangled rubble pile of nothing,” Bybee said. “I kept looking at the pile, thinking I would recognize something. A computer monitor. Or a chair. Or anything.”

Bybee was on her third day of work as part of the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) Mission Support Team, providing logistical support to the Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMAT) who cared for rescue workers at Ground Zero.

Walking the Ground Zero perimeter for about 16 hours a day, she found herself almost numb. A sense of hopelessness had kicked in as she kept staring at this pile of madness.

But then, out of nowhere, she finally saw it.

I’ve never seen that before

Bybee stared at it for a few minutes. Or maybe it was an hour. She lost track of time. She noticed a worker standing nearby and asked him a question.

“Did they do that on purpose?” Bybee said.

In his thick Bronx accent, the man quickly responded, “Yeah, they hit it with two planes.”

That wasn’t Bybee’s question. A cross had naturally formed from the mangled remains of the Twin Towers and despite walking past this spot many times on the backside of Ground Zero, Bybee had somehow missed the imagery. As did the worker: “Oh, man, I’ve never seen that before.”

You are not alone

The image of the cross was more than a coincidence for Bybee (and for many others as well), more than two fallen beams. The voice of the Lord was speaking to her and yes, to us.

“As I was staring at that, I got a sense of peace,” Bybee said. “I got a very strong message. That message was, ‘You are not alone. I am here.’”

The longer she looked at the cross, the more she was moved. There was other material wrapped around it that resembled the clothes that Jesus would have worn.

The steam in the background represented the devastation for the 9/11 families, while Bybee saw a ray of light coming in from the left, which was actually a stream of water gushing in.

“I couldn’t move for a long time,” she said. “I felt that message was not only given to me, but also to the people that I was working with and in contact with.”

I was just speechless

Opening the envelope from Long’s Drug Store near her home in Roseville, Calif., Bybee braced herself. Five days earlier, she had dropped off the film to be processed. More than three weeks had passed since her encounter with the cross in the rubble.

Would the picture do it justice? Would the image be as powerful as she remembered? Had she embellished it in her own mind? This was a disposable camera, after all, long before digital cameras became mainstream.

“I went through the photos and was just speechless. I really was,” Bybee said. “The more you study it, the more you see.” The iconic photo was picked up by churches and faith groups to recreate a real-life 9/11 stage for their Easter service, which reportedly drew 25,000 people.

“I didn’t realize the photo had caught as much as it did,” Bybee said. “It brought me right back to that moment.”

The memory of the smell

Of all the images seared in Bybee’s brain from her two-and-a-half-week experience at Ground Zero, the first thing that pops into her mind isn’t always this image of the cross. In fact, sometimes it’s not an image at all.

“The memory of the smell is still with me,” she said. “That smell was constant. You knew what the smell represented.”

INDEED! When I read Anne’s words, I too thought of the smell we First Responders know only too well — the smell of death (once you’ve smelled it, you never forget it).

On this, I am also reminded of the place where our Savior was executed on the cross of Calvary some 2000 years ago. That bloody hill would most certainly have reeked with the smell of death, hopelessness and fear (many others were crucified there before and after our Savior’s horrific death).

Yet three days later, and unlike those who were executed before Him, our Lord rose from the dead, and His bloody cross — like the 9/11 cross at Ground Zero — became a symbol of hope for all who have placed their trust in Him for their salvation (make no mistake, the symbol of the cross is ALL about Jesus and what He did for us).

Friends, on this 22^nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the message and image that God has pressed on my heart for us is that of the cross, and that we must — MUST — have a “front sight focus” both on it and the One who bore our sins upon it! For us who believe (born again believers), the cross represents both our eternal assurance of salvation AND the ONLY hope for this nation. And yes, it represents VICTORY!

Tragically, a great many have forgotten how, for at least a few short weeks and months, so many came together to pray and cry out to God in the midst of our national tragedy. Even more tragic is that many have forgotten, ceased to care, or have fallen away (false conversions) as the 9/11 wounds fade (for some of us) over time. And now our nation is tearing itself apart as we see Isaiah 5:20 played out before our eyes (demanding that what God says is evil must now be “good” and insisting that He calls good to be “evil”).

What then is the message of the cross (including the 9/11 cross) that God has for us?

First, and as I share frequently, God is emphatic in His Word (the Bible) that our so-called “good deeds”, sacrifices, and heroism in the line of duty CAN’T save us. We simply can’t earn Heaven or “badge” our way out of Hell (see Ephesians 2:8-10, John 3:1-21 and John 14:6). And one of my great sadness is not knowing how many of our 9/11 fallen (and the fallen in general) knew Christ as Lord and Savior. And of course I also know that there is NOTHING we can do for those who died having rejected Christ as Lord and Savior whilst they lived (see Hebrews 9:27).

Second, my prayer is that part of the legacy of 9/11 and the 9/11 cross will be that the lost (unsaved) who still live will “repent and believe” (Mark 1:15) and come to a genuine, life-saving/life-changing faith in the One who hung on the cross of Calvary 2000 years ago. That is the true hope and message of the 9/11 cross.

Finally, know that for the true Christian, the cross – including the 9/11 cross — represents VICTORY! Victory over pain, sickness, poverty, sadness, war, sin, death and evil in general. On this, Billy Graham, now with the Lord, shared the following message three days after the attacks: Billy Graham’s 9/11 Message.

So, do you know Him? Are you saved? Do you have the victory found only in Christ? Are you sure? And know it is not about empty “religion” or ritual. Friend, you can have that assurance, victory and peace! Scroll down to the Know God? section below for the “how to” (and please reach out if you have questions).

And if you do know Christ as Lord and Savior, I can’t encourage you enough to embrace my 9/11 First Responder “Code 3” (lights and siren) sense of urgency to “rescue” the lost while they still live by sharing the Gospel and plan of salvation with them (simply sharing these messages is a way to do that).

Source: www.lawofficer.com