2 Chronicles 7:14 – If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (NKJV)

Why do people have to wait until a disaster hits before we turn our hearts and minds to God?

During the second week of September for four consecutive years, we were in New York City attending a conference on making videos. With my birthday being on September 11th, we always went into the city to celebrate and to go shopping at my husband's favourite camera shop. New York City was busy, hustle and bustle, people always in a hurry, no one making eye contact or smiling … just busy. Strangely enough, in 2001, the year the 9/11 terrorist attack happened, our video conference had been moved to July, so we were not in the city on that date.

The next year, 2002, our conference was back on schedule, meeting on 9/11. We again went into the city to shop at the camera shop and to celebrate my birthday. The celebration trip quickly turned very sombre as we made our way to the World Trade Center site. We could still smell the ash in the air a year later. People made eye contact with one another, sometimes smiling and making conversation. Being a friendly soul, I smiled at people as we went along, and they smiled back. Once we arrived at Ground Zero, we met a New York City fireman who was there viewing the site. We started a conversation and learned that on the morning of 9/11, he was at work with all his co-workers. He received a call from his daughter's school saying that she was ill, so he left work to care for his daughter. In the next few minutes, 9/11 happened and everyone but him from his fire unit was lost in the horrible attack. He shared that he felt very guilty for having left and all his fellow workers being killed. We tried to console him and let him know that he had nothing to feel guilty about; he had to care for his daughter.

The feeling and atmosphere in New York City was very different that year. People took time for others, genuinely cared for one another, and turned their hearts to God.

Back to my original thought: It seems that through generation after generation after generation, Israel and all the world forget about God until some disastrous happening occurs. If only we could learn from other people's mistakes!

Prayer: Precious heavenly Father, we pray for ourselves and others to take the examples that You've given us in the precious Bible and apply them to our lives so that we don't have to wait until a disaster happens before turning our hearts to You. In Your name, we pray. Amen.

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About the author:

Gloria Coffey <gjmcquilts@yahoo.com>
Princeton, West Virginia, USA
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