September 11

In the Upper School Cornerstone this morning, Mr. Gould asked the students if any of them remembered 9/11.  A few seniors, who were three or four years old in 2001, sheepishly half-raised their hands.  Most of the room was unresponsive.

I remember the years in the early part of the new century when we were holding assemblies to commemorate the event and were still dealing with the raw emotions among the Trinity community.

Now the event recedes into the historical background each year, and we wonder how to deal with it.

The faculty gathers each Friday for devotions, and this morning Ellen Van Tongeren led us in a time of remembrance, confession, prayer, and singing.  The American flag sat behind her, and the song she brought us was a prayer for the healing of the nations.  We prayed for people fleeing Syria, Central America, and Mexico, and we remembered our own people who were lost.  One person on staff shared how her daughter's life was changed forever by that event, how she headed with focus and determination into the military career that she is pursues still today.  One persons reminded us to pray for all Muslim people on this day.

Here is the hymn we sang:

O God of every nation,
of every race and land,
redeem the whole creation
with your almighty hand.
Where hate and fear divide us
and bitter threats are hurled,
in love and mercy guide us,
and heal our strife-torn world.

I left the devotion, glad to be in a community where we pray like this.  I walked out the front door and looked down the walkway to the gym and saw the picture I've pasted here.