Tonight All Over America Candles Are Being Lit
By Rhonda Cooley
September 14, 2001
Tonight all over America candles are being lit,
A sign to all we will not quit.
Rise again that is what we will do,
Our courage and faith will carry us through.
We light these candles in remembrance of the ones who lost their life,
We pray for the ones left behind to grieve, that husband or that wife.
We pray that by a miracle a survivor will be uncovered in the rubble,
Even one person alive would make it worth all the trouble.
We pray for those who are there laboring at the site,
We ask you God to give them your strength and might.
Lift them up from inside and give them hope,
Comfort them when they feel they are at the end of their rope.
Bless our country's leaders as they investigate this crime,
As we know there has never been such a terrible time.
They need your wisdom more than ever now,
As they decide what to do and how.
Finally and most important, we pray for the souls of the ones who died,
We cannot know how hard they tried,
To hold onto a faith that seemed so shattered,
But you held them in your arms and that is all that mattered.
Again, tonight all over America candles are being lit,
A sign to all we will not quit.
Rise again that is what we will do,
Our courage and faith will carry us through.
Note From Author
Tonight as I lit my candles out in the yard,
I was touched by a feeling of being one spiritually with
the rest of America. I could feel the prayers they were saying
as I included my prayers in the petition being sent up to God.
It was very moving and I stood in silence for a few moments
after I lit that first candle. That is how much this feeling impacted me.
I lit a total of seven candles. The Bible refers to seven as being a perfect
number and it just so happens that is how many candles I had.
I placed them out in the yard, lining the drive. Many of my neighbors did the same.
I felt unity there with my neighbors and with all of America
as I prayed for all the people involved in this tragedy.
I relived in my heart and mind a time in my own family's life when
we lost a loved one tragically. My sister's husband was killed.
This too happened in September. He went to work that morning never to return
just like these people did. I remembered the feeling of being in a bad dream.
I remembered wanting to make it all go away. I remembered finally coming to the
realization that it was not going away and the best I could do was the best I could do.
One day at a time got our family through it. The calls from family and friends helped.
Prayers helped but above all the true help came as over time we rebuilt our lives
because we had to go on. The empty place at the table had to be faced. The memories
were both a comfort and a heartbreak. Time was the biggest helper of all.
In time less sadness comes and more happy memories replace the heartbreak.
The loved ones are always carried in our hearts and we never forget them but
they would want us to pick up and go on. Just like our loved one,Kerry
wanted us to do. His death was sudden and unexpected just like these peoples.
He left behind an eight year old son and a wife who grieved for him.
Many was the day we took comfort from the sound of his voice in our heart telling us to
pick up and carry on. Go forward and rebuild our lives and know that he was
watching over us. That is the kind of thoughts that get you through times like these.
We always ask the question of why this had to happen and most of the time you do not
get a solid answer. You have to reach inside your own belief system and use that to
make sense of it. For me that inner belief system always looks for anything positive that
came out of the tragedy. For today that is what I am doing as I pray for these people
who are experiencing that same kind of loss we had when we lost Kerry.
Let me close in saying, IF any good came out of this tragedy,
it is the fact that we are all united in our faith and prayers at this time.
And Jesus himself told us how important that is. He said,
"Where two or three are gathered together in my name...
There am I in the midst of them."
We need Him now in our midst.
Let us remain united in our faith and prayers.
