Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.—Proverbs 23:18 (NRSV)

The streets in New York were painfully empty those first few days after the World Trade Center was destroyed. The downtown skyline was missing its usual punctuation points. Police cars and emergency vehicles passed, sirens blaring. And signs went up all over town with faces of the victims: “Missing . . .” “Last seen on the 97th floor . . .” 

Everyone traded stories, seeking some signs of reassurance, some sense that God could be present here, when things didn’t make any sense anymore. One friend told us, with incredulity, how that morning her husband would have been at his office on the upper floors of the World Trade Center, but she had a meeting to attend and because of it he had to take their son to nursery school. An errand that miraculously saved his life. They were both grateful, even as he mourned the deaths of his colleagues. 

The story that resonated most with me came from a dad whose son had started his first day of high school only blocks from the towers. Disaster struck in that first hour of classes and the kids had to be sent home. The only way was to walk. No subways or buses were running. 

A streetwise fourteen-year-old, he knew his way home, but the horror was haunting. He started walking. He’d gone for a mile or two when he saw his father coming toward him the other way. They embraced, and the son said, “I knew you’d come.” 

I knew you’d come. Isn’t that the sort of phrase that lodges in all our minds when tragedy strikes? We know, despite the sorrow, despite the pain, that our Father will come.