Good morning…
On Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, suicide hijackers seized U.S. passenger jets and crashed them into two New York skyscrapers, tragically killing nearly three thousand innocent people on one ordinary day. On this Monday, September 11th, 2023 we honor the memory of those loved ones lost on the twenty-second anniversary of the attack, which remains one of the most traumatic events of the century.
It is fitting that this 9/11 is also the day we begin a new semester, studying together Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor. In my opinion, over my lifetime collectively as a nation, there has been no darker day than 9/11/2001. The immense shock of tragedy forces us to learn to slowly shuffle our way forward through the darkness with God.
“Even when light fades and darkness falls – as it does every single day, in every single life – God does not turn the world over to some other deity,” writes Barbara on page 16. “Even when you cannot see where you are going and no one answers when you call, this is not sufficient proof that you are alone. There is a divine presence that transcends all your ideas about it, along with all your language for calling it to your aid, which is not above using darkness as the wrecking ball that brings all your false gods down – but whether you decide to trust the witness of those who have gone before you, or you decide to do whatever it takes to become a witness yourself, here is the testimony of faith: darkness is not dark to God; the night is as bright as the day.”
9/11/01. War. Gun violence. Abuses of all kinds. Political turmoil. Loneliness. Addiction. Disease. Estrangement. Loss caused by death. We humans experience a lot of darkness.
Even if I am afraid and think to myself, “There is no doubt that the darkness will swallow me,
the light around me will soon be turned to night,”
You can see in the dark, for it is not dark to Your eyes.
For You the night is just as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are the same to Your eyes (Psalm 139:11-12, VOICE).
Even though our eyes cannot see the divine presence transcending everything, we are seen, we are known, we are never alone. God constantly keeps a loving eye on us, day and night, and somehow our feet are gradually guided forward through the darkest of dark.
…Sue…
