Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40: 28-31 (NKJV)“The Lord is my light and my salvation—so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?”
Psalm 27: 1 (NLT)“This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes, and we reach for the stars.”
(The West Wing)
A veil of darkness, a covering of evil, was rising in Europe in the late 1930s.
And so, my maternal Grandparents, Grandpa and Grandma Regula, left the growing wave of a Nazi evil spreading across Europe.
And they came to America. Through Ellis Island, settling in Riverhead, Long Island, and becoming naturalized citizens of America.
As America then rose to help defeat the Nazi evil, and save the world.
And my Grandparents, then running their own boarding house, helped to raise and care for me and my family.
And later, at seven years of age, my beloved Grandpa took me to my first-ever Major League Baseball game. In Yankee Stadium, pitting the New York Yankees against the visiting Boston Red Sox. With Whitey Ford pitching for the Yankees.
Many years later, on September 11, 2001, a veil of darkness was lowered over America for a time. It was a time of uncertainty for everyone.
My bride reached me by phone a few minutes after 8:46 am, on a cool and sunny Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, with the words—
“A plane has crashed into one the Towers of the World Trade Center…”
She wanted me to know. We prayed together.
Minutes later my cell phone rang again. I picked up to hear Lynda’s faint trembling voice share— “A second…a second plane…has hit the south Tower of the World Trade Center…” We cried and prayed.
And then a plane crashed into the Pentagon. Another plane crashed into an empty field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
So where did we turn in that dark moment twenty-five years ago?
We turned to our trust in God.
We turned to each other. We stood. We rose.
American heroes, one and all.
And seven weeks later, we watched as our President, George W. Bush, on October 30, 2001, defiantly stood, for all Americans, on the mound before game three of the Major League Baseball World Series to throw out the first pitch signaling “play ball.”
As President Bush exited the dugout and walked across the field to the mound, he remembers thinking that— “I’d never felt what I felt before I walked out of that dugout. I felt the raw emotion of the Yankee fans.”
Emotions of fans who watched their President stand tall, and rise with them against anything, or anyone, while erupting in chants of— “USA. USA. USA…”
Then the President took the mound standing like an immovable wall, unafraid of any terrorists, rising to the moment for all Americans, then gave the crowd a thumbs up, and threw a perfect strike.
A pitch for America—a perfect strike—reminding the world that America, and real American heroes, will always stand, will always rise for right, for good, and for all the world.
Forever ready, one and all, to throw a pitch for, and with each other for right—and for all Americans.
Including for and with my Grandpa and Grandma, too.
A pitch for American heroes—together we touch the face of God.
In His Name–Scott
You will be moved as you watch this brief video— “Remembering President Bush’s First Pitch at Yankee Stadium After 9/11,” and the inspiring moment of game three of the 2001 World Series in Yankee Stadium, as President George W. Bush stands, rises and throws a perfect strike for America, and for each of us.
