Let's roll!
by Jaynan Clark Egland (President, WordAlone Network)
September 13, 2002
Pr. Jaynan Clark
I am hopeful that all of you had a church service available to you on 9/11 to gather with other Christians in community to mark the anniversary in prayer and with the proclamation of our only Word of hope, Jesus Christ.
The images of that day will remain part of each of us all the rest of our days.
Events, usually tragic ones, have the ability to sear images into our minds and hearts so effectively that we can recall them instantly in our minds’ eye and find ourselves in the same place we were when we first witnessed them. Images of a motorcade in Dallas, little John-John saluting his father’s casket, Kent State, Challenger exploding in mid-air and the events of 9/11 with towering infernos, planes and three firefighters raising a flag have been seared into my very self and will live on for my lifetime.
These images can stop us in our busy, fast paced tracks and cause us to pause, frozen in time. Todd Beemer, the man aboard United Flight #93 who participated in diverting it off its destructive course and made the phrase, “Let’s roll,” a part of our history, left behind in the wreckage his watch that still reeks of jet engine fuel. It has only one part still readable, the date Sept. 11. Frozen in time.
Certainly, as history is recorded and timelines constructed, 9/11 will be present. Our historical timelines seem to measure and record world history one tragic event after another. For instance, Jesus’ crucifixion, Good Friday, a day of universal tragedy and eternal hope. It is an event that sears into our minds the image of God revealed in Jesus dying on the cross. That image, transposed over towering infernos, a grieving child, an exploding shuttle—transposed over any and all images of tragedy, suffering and loss—freezes time and puts Jesus right in the places where they first occurred. His is a true picture of life and hope.
In Jesus is hope that springs eternal, “Let’s roll”—let us roll back the stone from the opening of His tomb and see once again that it is empty. He has risen, just “image” that! The cross and the empty tomb are images of God, images frozen in time for all time.
Let’s roll! There’s a tragic story of eternal hope to be told! Faith history in the making.
Grace and Peace,
Jaynan Clark Egland
