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I was looking through my facebook memories today and this one popped up. I didn't even remember writing it ....

As I was thinking about the bad stuff of the day from 9/11 and yet how much it bugs me to think on the bad stuff, my mind turned to another time that we honor & celebrate the bad stuff: Easter.
Then I had to ask myself what was different about celebrating/honoring 9/11 with the "never forget" but that Easter didn't cause that feeling for me. What is the difference?
After all, during Holy Week, most Christians do not shy away from celebrating Palm Sunday, reading about the moment that Jesus rode into Bethlehem on a donkey and then end with shouts of "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
For the entire next week, we let those words soak into our minds and hearts. We wash each other's feet on Thursday and end with the Altar and all of the sanctuary stripped of anything that tells us "Jesus is here." And we feel that, right to our core.
What if we left it right there? What would we become?
I imagine that we would hate the Jews who wanted Jesus dead. We'd think that Judas deserved every bad thing that came to him, including his own death by suicide.
We'd end with anger and hatred and sadness.
But we don't leave it there. We remember the redemption that happened.
The women found the stone rolled away. They saw the tomb empty - where was their Rabbi? They were heartbroken and left to go home. But Mary Magdalene stayed behind and found the gardner and asked where they had layed Jesus - she would take him away if they wanted her to.
And the person that she thought to be the gardner turned out to be the Risen Lord. He had risen! He couldn't be conquered!
That was the redemption. That was the Good News. That is what we truly celebrate when we "never forget."

So today, perhaps we can use the redemptive moments of 9/11 to remember to tell everyone that we see "God bless you." And to our family and friends, "I love you, and I'm so glad that you're in my life." And count our lucky stars for those of our loved ones who are alive and still with us.
Because that is the redemption of 9/11 that causes us to be better people; people who had their hearts broken yet healed because of the love of our family, friends, and God.
We can have terrible things happen, and we still rise. Because we are made of the same stuff as God, because we have a measure of His Divinity is us too.

♥ Melody