We Still Remember: The National September 11 Memorial Museum



Yesterday the doors of the National September 11 Memorial Museum opened for the first time, welcoming President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, along with families of 9/11 victims.

This memorial, a 110,000 square foot exhibition built entirely underground, that runs through the 16 acre site known as "Ground Zero", holds within its walls memories of those who lost their lives that day.  

On Wednesday, I watched an NBC Nightly News report featuring the museum and its director, Alice M. Greenwald. As my eyes took in the artifacts that tell the story of the tragedy of September 11, 2001, I was pulled into the horror once again.

A hand rake used by workers to search for human remains

 Fragments of the aircrafts destroyed during the attack

 A pair of shoes that a survivor kicked off so she could escape the World Trade Center 

 A teddy bear collected from Ground Zero after a prayer vigil

I wiped a tear as I remembered.

I felt like 9/11 had happened yesterday.

And then, at the end of the broadcast, the clouds in my mind made way for the sun. Reporter Brian Williams asked Alice Greenwald, referring to visiting the museum, "This is a tough experience, isn't it?"

Alice M. Greenwald
Her response:

"It is a tough experience. It's a museum about loss. It's a museum about pain. It's a museum about terrorism. It's a museum about history. But... 

 It's also about the resilience that we have in ourselves, not just as individual human beings, but as a society, to rebuild, to recover, to renew, to go forward and to always remember as we do so."

And isn't this the story of our lives?

We experience loss and pain and injury and sordid pasts.

But we are also victors, thank You Jesus.

We are resilient souls.

 We rebuild. 

 We recover.

 We renew.

 We move forward.

And we REMEMBER.

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