It was a beautiful, fall day. There were only a few puffy, white clouds breaking up the expanse of bright blue in the sky. Energy among the student body was high until the chapel service was brought to a close by an announcement that shocked us all. A plane had flown into one of the Twin Towers in New York City. Before the reality of what was being said could begin to sink in, another announcement was made. A second plane. A terrorist attack. They think the Pentagon and the White House could be next.

September 11^th of any year will never again be just another day. It will be a day that we as Americans reflect on loss, evil, heroism, patriotism, justice and freedom. And rightfully so. But as deeply as the memories of the horror touch me today, there is something else that strikes me even more powerfully. Grace.

Unimaginable, unfathomable, unalterable, unending grace.

It’s so easy for me to stand and sing “Grace, grace, God’s grace. Grace that is greater than all our sin.” I’ve been singing that song since I was a little girl without so much of a second thought. But the truth of that statement should stop us all mid-note. Grace that is greater than ALL our sin.

Grace doesn’t often seem like that big of a deal to us because we tend to have a light view of sin. “My sin isn’t as bad as that person’s sin.” “I’m a good person.” “Yeah, I might do this or that, but I’m not a murderer for goodness sake.” We look at something so purely evil as hijacking a plane and flying it into a building, killing thousands of innocent lives and we can’t imagine grace big enough to cover something so horrible. In comparison, getting angry and saying something we shouldn’t doesn’t seem to even measure on the same scale. What we fail to realize is that both of those acts are sin. While humanly speaking, those two things could never compare, from God’s point of view, both of them sent His Son to the cross. I am just as worthy of hell as a murdering terrorist apart from God’s grace.

The incomprehensible grace of God.

At some point in Sarah’s journey with God, she chose to take matters into her own hands. She chose to doubt the truth of God’s Word, and she chose to believe the lies of the liar. She convinced herself that she was just doing what was necessary to bring about God’s plan, but she failed to ask God what He thought about her idea.

The results of Sarah’s decision can still be felt around the world today. The hatred between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael has brought forth all manner of wickedness and death. Acts of violence are committed every day in the name of God, just as Sarah’s sin was committed in the name of God thousands of years ago. It may seem that the atrocities committed on September 11, 2001, or those that continue to be committed in the Middle East today cannot possibly compare to the sinful schemes of your innermost thoughts, but please realize that both are manifestations of the lust of a sinful heart. ‘Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.’ (James 1:15) The sin of the terrorist and the sin of the teenager both sent Christ to the cross. – Forgetting the Fairy Tale