Memory Markers

September 11, 2022
 
Reflections From the Heart of Allan Redenius
There are days in our lives that are memorable memory markers.  Historical events that are burned into our memories for all of time.  Here are three of my memorable memory markers.
 

• I was in chemistry class in 1963 when an announcement was made that President Kennedy had been shot.  I remember watching his funeral.  The most memorable picture in my mind of the funeral procession was the riderless horse that followed the caisson carrying the President’s body to Arlington National Cemetery.  The traditional riderless horse dates back to Genghis Kahn, centuries before.  A fallen warrior’s horse follows the caisson.  In the saddle stirrups, never again to be occupied, are boots placed in a backwards position.  FYI…the riderless horse that followed JFK’s caisson was named Black Jack.
• As a youth, I remember well that, often on the news, there were reports of East Germans being shot as they scaled the Berlin Wall in an attempt to gain freedom.  November 9, 1989, was a day of joy, as the Berlin Wall came down.  As I watched its’ fall unfold, I could not help but feel the sense of newfound freedom the people of Berlin experienced that day.
• On September 11, 2001, as Armona and I were eating breakfast at a local restaurant, someone said, “A plane just crashed into one of the Twin Towers in New York City.”  At the moment, I thought it was probably just a small single engine plane lost in the fog.  I soon realized the gravity of the moment.  As I watched on television, I thought, “What a terrible accident.”  Then the news commentators became excited as if to express unbelief as another plane struck the second tower.  At that moment I realized something more sinister was at hand.

 
Indeed, everything changed after September 11, 2001.  What remains are memories of the heroes that emerged from that terrible day.  The firemen, the police, who ran into those buildings to save others.  While everyone else was running away, they ran into the burning, collapsing buildings and not away.
 
Jesus said this in John 15:13. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
 
 
Let us never forget…..
Pastor Allan
 
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