We are a Vapor

On the morning of September 11, 2001 I was in ninth grade. I remember waking up early for school that morning and turning on the local Christian radio station and being puzzled by the radio announcer asking and praying for the people in the Towers. I did not understand what was happening. I walked out of my room and turned on the television and watch what unfolded there.

In the years that followed, on the anniversary of the day I searched the internet for cnn’s live file footage of that morning and watch it. I wanted to remember the experience of that morning, the confusion and the chaos and the uncertainty and the dread knowledge of what was about the happen that the people in the footage did not yet know about.

I did this every year for at least the first five years afterwards because I wanted to remember. I think I had ingrained in me two sayings, “History is like an endless waltz” and “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” On one of those years I went to church shortly after watching the footage. There I heard the song “Be Unto Your Name” whose lyrics run thus:

We are a moment, You are forever 
Lord of the Ages, God before time 
We are a vapor, You are eternal 
Love everlasting, reigning on high 

Chorus: 
Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty 
Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain 
Highest praises, honor and glory 
Be unto Your name, be unto Your name 

We are the broken, You are the healer 
Jesus, Redeemer, mighty to save 
You are the love song we'll sing forever 
Bowing before You, blessing Your name.

At the words “We are a vapor” the images of the dust of the Towers rushing to consume those who fled filled my mind. I was so struck by my own smallness and the frailty of man but was also struck by the contrast: the greatness and otherness of God: God, who is forever, Lord of the ages, God before time, who is eternal, who is everlasting, and who reigns on high.

In my inward contemplation of this wonder, I somehow missed the second half of this song, the part that we need to hear after understanding the greatness of God: We are the broken, You are the healer. Jesus. Redeemer. Mighty to save. God is not someone who is great and far off, who does not care about our suffering. He is near and cares for us; who was and is the Lamb who was slain for us.

This dual understanding of God: that he is great and yet he cares for and loves us is one of the great mysteries of the universe and indeed the central message of the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 28:18-20, the Great Commission, serves as a summary of the flavor of Matthew’s gospel.

Standing on a mountain in Galilee before ascending to heaven, Jesus spoke once more to his disciples saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Even in the midst of tragedies and horrific evil like 9-11 and the Boston Marathon, these words have been given by God to us who believe as words of comfort: I am in control and I love you.