Mercy at Ground Zero

On August 11th of 2003, the OBCC high school mission team to Philadelphia took a trip to the former site of the World Trade Center, Ground Zero in New York City. This was probably the most humbling experience of my life.

I was standing on a sidewalk that nearly 2 years prior, was covered with the remains of two of the tallest buildings in the world, the wreckage of two jet planes and countless deceased. It was as if time stopped for me when I stopped to think about how many people died in that exact spot. Of course capitalism had taken over the area by that time. Street vendors were selling every manor of chachki that related to the disaster. As a matter of fact I bought a laser etched acrylic block remembering the event.

All around the site there was still evidence of the devastation. The face of a near by building had been sheered off, there were cracks in the sidewalk and there were boarded windows and construction fences blocks away. But dead center in the middle of it all there seemed to be hope. There was construction happening in the "bathtub" foundation of the site, and at the south end of it all was an i-beam framing structure in the shape of a cross. As if God was in control. The fence in the picture was built all around the site. A sturdy, permanent fence around 12 feet high. Not really the kind of fence you can climb. There were signs every 20 feet or so that said "Do not write on fence." But no one obeyed, not even our team. We all had something to say. We felt that somehow we owed it to those who died to remember them somehow.

"Please Lord God, in your wrath, remember mercy. " Habakuk 3:2. Such a statement in such a place. This stood out to me more than any other bit of graffiti on the fence. There were thousands of names written, and much profanity to those who caused this. There were words of remembrance and consolation, but this was the only one I saw that spoke true Christianity. Jesus is all about love, forgiveness, and mercy, and as hard as it may be to share those feelings here, this is what it is like to truly be like Jesus. Please don't get me wrong, I want to see justice served to those responsible, but Jesus died for all.

A simple message scribbled on a fence said so much.