9/11 : Ten Years On.

So many of us will remember exactly where we were when the news broke.

I had just got home from work, having collected #2 (then age 8) from school. He had changed out of his uniform and gone downstairs to watch CBBC. After a few moments, he shouted that he couldn't find his favourite programme. As I walked into the room, I saw the second plane hit the tower. I thought it was a horror film, and started switching channels. Then I realised that all the channels were showing the same footage, and it was live. Those images will remain with us forever.

Five years later we stood at the fence at Ground Zero, behind it a huge hole where the towers once stood, and wondered what would happen to that void. A time to pray, to remember and never forget.

Today we watched the remembrance service and the Opening of the National September 11 Memorial. A beautiful place to honour those who lost their lives. The Mayor of New York said "They each had a face, a story, a life cut short from under them. As we listen, let us recall the words of Shakespeare: 'Let us not measure our sorrow by their worth, for then it will have no end'."

Psalm 46, read by President Obama today :-

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come and see what the LORD has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
He says, "Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

F