Certain events have a way of changing our perspective on things. The birth of your first child makes you aware of so many more dangers in the world. When your child is old enough to drive and becoming an adult, you start to see her differently. She’ll always be your baby girl though. If you’ve ever been laid off or found yourself unemployed, you’ve seen the world differently than those who have been blessed to have always been employed.
Eighteen years have passed. I still have vivid memories of the events as they unfolded on TV. My perspective of the world forever changed that day. A lot of people turned to God on 9.11.01. Many others questioned how He could allow something like that to even happen. As for me, my love for mankind and empathy for others grew exponentially.
We might not be as worried about terrorism as we were eighteen years ago, but things still happen every day that either drive people towards God or cause them to question His sovereignty. Are we, as disciples of Christ, prone to engage in conflict or to have empathy? Do we meet people where they are and represent Jesus in our interactions? Or do we pour fuel on the fire of conflict by proclaiming our subjective feelings as gospel truth?
Two weeks after the crew of Apollo 8 returned to earth, Colonel Frank Borman said, “We saw the earth the size of a quarter and we recognized that there really is one world. We are all brothers.” In a healthy family, brothers don’t agree on everything, but they love each other. On September 12, 2001, Americans didn’t agree on everything, but they started to act like they loved each other. Maybe we should stop allowing politics and media to divide us, and start acting like we love each other again. It shouldn’t take a global, national, or even local tragedy to bring us together.
There really is one world, and we are all brothers and sisters.
Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory/Joshua Stevens; NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service.