“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.”
Isaiah 43:2
Michael Benfante was working in the World Trade Center on 9/11. After hearing an explosion, he and others proceeded down a smoky stairwell on the 68th floor. Assisted by a colleague, he was also carrying a woman in a wheelchair. They were out of the building 90 minutes later; in another five minutes the tower collapsed.
Benfante noted that “for months after the attack, the country and perhaps the world became united from the lessons learned about the fragility of life and appreciation of a common humanity.” After 20 years many of those lessons have faded.
Yet undoubtedly, what Benfante and his colleague John Cerqueira did for the wheelchair-bound woman has not waned in her memory. She was mercifully saved by two men who looked on her with compassion to do for her what she could not do herself.
And therein is the lasting lesson: Jesus has carried us through the evil of this sinful world and has saved us. While we are as unable to save ourselves as the woman in the wheelchair that day, He picks us up and sees us through.
Benfante noted that “for months after the attack, the country and perhaps the world became united from the lessons learned about the fragility of life and appreciation of a common humanity.” After 20 years many of those lessons have faded.
Yet undoubtedly, what Benfante and his colleague John Cerqueira did for the wheelchair-bound woman has not waned in her memory. She was mercifully saved by two men who looked on her with compassion to do for her what she could not do herself.
And therein is the lasting lesson: Jesus has carried us through the evil of this sinful world and has saved us. While we are as unable to save ourselves as the woman in the wheelchair that day, He picks us up and sees us through.
Scripture Focus
Isaiah 43:1-7
Insight
This story came from a September 9, 2011, radio broadcast on WBUR for Here and Now written by Alex Ashlock and titled, “A Reluctant 9/11 Hero Looks Back.”
Bible In A Year
- Song of Solomon 5-6
- Psalm 71
- John 11
