Yeeeeeough!! Wow! What was that? That was summer 2010! It’s gone, It’s over! Well, can I get another one? Nope! Only one per year! At times the days seemed to have limped by, but the months have flown. That’s the way it is with life. The days might seem long, but the years themselves seem to evaporate into the atmosphere into nothing! Looking back is always that way. I think that’s what our Psalmist means in Psalm 144, verse 4. He writes, “Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.” There’s not a lot to them. Once they go, they’re gone!

Lynn Vincent told this story: Will Jimeno and John McLoughlin were the last two people rescued from the World Trade Center after the September 11 terrorist attack. For Will Jimeno, that tragic day represents a defining moment in his Christian faith.Jimeno, McLoughlin, and three other officers entered Tower 1 to rescue civilians. But when they got inside, the building collapsed. McLoughlin and Jimeno were pinned under large blocks of concrete rubble and twisted steel. The other three officers were killed.

For the next ten hours, Jimeno and his partner fought pain and thirst inside a concrete tomb swirling with dust and smoke. At times, ruptured gas lines would hurl fireballs into the ruins, threatening to burn the two men to death. In another terrifying moment, heat from the fireballs “cooked off” the ammunition inside the firearm of a fallen officer, sending fifteen bullets ricocheting around the chamber.

Jimeno’s hope began to falter. “I was exhausted. I had done everything as a police officer that I could do, and everything as a human being,” he said. “I just knew I was going to die.” Just then, Jimeno saw a figure coming toward him through the rubble. “He wore a glowing white robe and a rope belt,” Jimeno said. “I couldn’t see his face, but I knew it was Jesus.” The vision filled Jimeno with hope. “I had this resurgence of the will to fight,” he said. Turning toward McLoughlin, he yelled, “We’re going to get out of this hellhole!” Several hours later, U.S. Marines and NYPD rescue workers lifted the men out of their concrete prison.

The events of that day have given Jimeno a new perspective on the brevity of life. He noted that, even if a person lives to be ninety years old, that’s only a little over thirty-two thousand days. “It’s not that many,” Jimeno said. “You have to do good and do right with the small period you have in between.”

Chuck
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. (Psalm 136:1)