One year ago, on September 11, I was walking during my lunch hour, choosing to fast that day. I was walking outside on a path that goes around our corporate campus. It was very windy, so windy in fact, that I was beginning to be afraid of a tree limb falling on my head. I went around the whole circle safely though. I heard later that the wind started during the ceremony in New York, when the reading of the names of the 9-11 victims was started, and that it promptly ended when the reading was finished. Many people were wondering if that was coincidence or if it could have been a sign of God. Most seemed to think it was a sentimental thought, but just a coincidence.
Several weeks later, thinking of this, while walking on the same path, this thought came through my head, almost as if it were spoken to me: "Why is it so incredible that I would choose to share my presence with you, to show you that I too, hurt on that day, and to show my presence with you by doing this?" I believe that God was there, that the wind was caused by Him (I didn't hear of any bad things happening from the wind by the way), and that somehow, in a way I cannot comprehend, He allowed 9-11 to happen so that a greater good would come about, yet grieved with us as we mourned that day. Maybe He will share His presence with us again as people observe moments of silence and words of remembrance on Thursday morning.
I didn't get to see the memorial service last year, but my mother did, and she told me about the wind. She said that the way it happened was definitely strange. She also felt that it was God showing His presence. I don't doubt that He was doing just that.