“The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” 1 John 3:8
It was a regular Tuesday morning. I was sitting in the back row on the right side of the classroom when my fifth-grade teacher burst into the room sometime between 8:46 and 9:03 a.m. My teacher was the most professional, prim and proper woman in the school, yet the second she burst through the door, I could tell something was very wrong. She rushed to the squat old T.V. in the front right portion of the room and turned it on. She was ashen faced with one hand over her mouth and one hand over her heart. She stood like that for what felt like and eternity. This was September 11, 2001, and the World Trade Tower had just been struck.
This past week, 23 years later, I was reminded of the same feeling I had during that confusing and scary moment. Some of my extended family was just sitting down to dinner when my Mom went to the T.V., remote in one hand and the other nearly covering her mouth, reminiscent of the Tuesday morning long ago. Mom called us over with, “Guys, guys, come here.” I could only see the bottom of the T.V. screen from my seat, and I realized it was the news and something bad must have had happened. I hustled over to stand in front of the T.V. in a small semi-circle with my family. Former President Donald Trump had missed being assassinated by mere millimeters.
Following the Sandy Hook Shooting, Building 429 composed the song “We Won’t Be Shaken”. I love this song as it expresses such hope and resilience despite the darkness that we sometimes see. It says: “This world has nothing for me. This life is not my own. I know You go before me, and I am not alone. This mountain rises higher. The way seems so unclear, but I know that You go with me, so I will never fear. I will trust in You. Whatever will come our way, through fire or pouring rain; no, we won’t be shaken. No, we won’t be shaken. Whatever tomorrow brings, together we’ll rise and sing that we won’t be shaken. No, we won’t be shaken”
As former President Trump was escorted off the stage amidst a huddle of Secret Service members, he raised his fist high in the air with blood streaming down his face from the bullet wound. This gesture was resilience and determination personified, and it reminded me of the Building 249 song, “No, we won’t be shaken”.
No matter where we fall on the political spectrum, or personal feelings on the individuals battling for leadership of this nation, we can surely agree this assassination attempt was shaking. A collective traumatic event.
I have been thinking of the two builders in Matthew 7, verse 27 in particular, following this event. Verse 27 says, “ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”” Great was the fall of it. Not only did the structure fall in this verse, but it was catastrophic. It was immense. It was irreparable.
This world with all its tribulations is a difficult place. For those that know and love Jesus, we don’t have to grieve as those who have no hope. C.S. Lewis, in the Chronicles of Narnia wrote, “”Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight. At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more, When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death. And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.”
That prophecy, though a shadow of Christ and written for children, still comforts me when I think about what Jesus will do when He comes again. Times get hard. Situations get bleak. Suffering is inescapable, but Jesus destroyed the work of the devil, and He is coming back to irradicate sin fully and completely one day. Following that eradication, there will be nothing but perfection and perfect peace left.
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Matthew 7:24-27
