9/11. Just two numbers, but they have so much meaning!
Photo credit: Michael Ver Sprill
Anyone who witnessed the terrible scenes from New York in 2001 may recall where they were and what they were doing at that moment in history. No one thought that those two massive towers, known as The World Trade Centre, would ever come down, but they did!
Unknown to those outside watching in horror, as smoke billowed from the towers, desperate escape efforts took place inside. Brian Clark, a Canadian businessman, was working on the 84th floor in the South Tower. At 9:03 a.m., Flight 175 struck floors 77 to 85. Mr. Clark’s office was at the top of that impact zone. “Our room just got rocked, just destroyed in a second,” he told the Associated Press ten years later.
After the crash, Mr. Clark and some other survivors from his floor attempted to descend Stairwell A. They had no idea that it was the only stairway that had not been destroyed! On the 81st floor, they met a woman heading up the stairs, who told them to turn back. She had seen fire and debris lower down and advised them to get to the roof, hoping a helicopter would rescue them.
Two ways – a choice had to be made. As Mr. Clark’s group debated what to do, he was distracted by a banging noise and what he thought was a voice. He left the group, and moving toward the sound he heard, “Help. Help! I’m buried! Is anybody there? I can’t breathe!” Then he saw a hand desperately waving through a hole in the wall.
It was Stanley Praimnath, a Fuji Bank employee who was miraculously alive but trapped. After several tries, Mr. Clark was able to get him over the wall, and together they returned to the stairwell. Unfortunately, the group decided to heed the woman’s advice and headed back up the stairs, in hopes of being rescued. Sadly, that rescue never came and none of them survived. As it turned out, the NYC officials could not authorize any rooftop rescue, as there was little to no visibility.
Dear friend, in kindness we ask you, what are you resting on for eternity? Whose word are you depending on? God warns us in the Scriptures, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12).
Both men headed down the stairwell, pushing through the smoking rubble to descend 80 floors. At 9:55 a.m. they reached ground level. As they left the building, a firefighter told them to run as debris was falling into the street. Within minutes of their escape, the South Tower began to crumble. Of all the people on the floors above where Flight 175 struck, only four survived. Mr. Clark and Mr. Praimnath were two of them.
Dear reader, this account reminds us all that just as there was only one way for that group to escape the burning tower, so there is only one way to personally have forgiveness of sins and be saved from God’s wrath to come. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). The Bible tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ came to “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself ” (Hebrews 9:26). “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). Dear friend, God’s ways are higher than our ways. We urge you to humbly believe His Word without delay.
Ron Mills - International Bible House
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