9-11—THE DAY THE LAST WERE FIRST & THE FIRST WERE LAST

The weekend following September 11th, syndicated columnist and former presidential speechwriter Peggy Noonan drove to Lower Manhattan to witness the relief effort taking place at Ground Zero. She found herself focusing on the convoy of trucks filled with rescue workers coming off their 12-hour shifts. The men in the trucks were construction and electrical workers, police, emergency medical workers, and firemen. It was a procession of the not-so-rich and famous.

Nonetheless, these New Yorkers were celebrities in a human drama more significant than any Broadway act. Noonan joined the growing crowd of onlookers cheering the workers with shouts of “God bless you!” and “We love you!” They clapped and blew kisses.

Noonan writes:

I looked around me at all of us who were cheering. And saw who we were. Investment bankers! Orthodontists! Magazine editors! In my group, a lawyer, a columnist, and a writer. We had been the kings and queens of the city, respected professionals in a city that respects its professional class.

And this night we were nobody. We were so useless, all we could do was applaud the somebodies, the workers who, unlike us, had not been applauded much in their lives.… I was so moved and, oddly I guess, grateful. Because they’d always been the people who ran the place, who kept it going, they’d just never been given their due.

This reversal Peggy Noonan witnessed is nothing less than a foreshadowing of what Jesus talked about. A day is coming when the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

Citation: Greg Asimakoupoulos, Naperville, Illinois; Source: Peggy Noonan, “Welcome Back, Duke,” Wall Street Journal, (10-12-01)

Honoring God as we honor those who sacrifice & serve, Pastor Larry

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