Even the hard-core reporters were having a hard time talking about it. Apparently, that Ground Zero Museum where the Twin Towers once stood is one powerful experience. As you walk in, you hear the last "I love you" messages people sent from the towers or from the doomed planes. It's a heart-rending walk through this nation's darkest hour I guess, and the heroism and hope that lit up that darkness.
Like the man President Obama spoke about at the dedication service. After the wingtip of a hijacked plane sliced through the 78th floor, a group of people were huddling together in the Elevator Sky Lobby, waiting for help. Then they heard the voice. "I found the stairs - follow me!" It was Welles Crowther, a 24-year-old equities trader, whose trademark was the red bandanna he had carried in his pocket since he was a boy.
With a woman on his back and a red bandanna in his hand, he led the group to a stairwell. He gave one woman a fire extinguisher, told the group to stay together and go on down the stairs, and they made it out. But Welles didn't go with them. No, he went back upstairs to help others.
That's when another woman, badly injured, saw this man with a red bandanna over his nose and mouth, running across the lobby. He led them to an obscure staircase and then went back for others. Then the tower came down. They found Welles Crowther's body six months later. His red bandanna is on display in the museum.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You about "Our Own Ground Zero."
His father was there at the dedication, and his words actually touched a pretty deep chord in me. He said, "I don't think for a moment he was thinking about his own safety. He was thinking about the lives of all those people. Welles' last hour was his legacy."
Just like my hero. His last hour was on a cross where He bled out His life to save people who otherwise would have died. I'm one of them. All of us whose sins were paid for on that day were His legacy. The Bible tells us in Revelation 1:5 that "Jesus loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood." And then in our word for today from the Word of God, in Galatians 1:4 it says, "He gave himself to rescue us."
Jesus came where I was one day and He said, "Hey, I have the way out. Follow Me." Following Him saved my life and saved my soul. Me and the millions who have accepted His invitation, "Follow Me."
There's one stop in the Ground Zero Museum that is reportedly one of the most moving. I know I'd be spending some time there. It's that cross. The construction worker who found those girders in the shape of a cross said, "My one goal was to find someone alive. I didn't. But I found the cross." The rubble cavern where it was found came to be known as "God's House" to those hope-starved workers at Ground Zero.
It was a Ground Zero chaplain who brought the hope found there right into my hope-hungry life and yours. He said, "When the ground is shaking all around you, find your cross and your Ground Zero." I did. It's the ground that never moves. It's the Love I'll never lose. It's Jesus. Who you find when you go to the cross where He died for you and say, "Jesus, this is for me."
If you never have, I invite you to find your way to the safe place, and I would love to help you do that. That's what our website is there for. Would you go there? It's ANewStory.com. It's time to say, "Jesus, I'm yours" and be welcomed into the safety of the Son of God, who died for you.