Where were you twenty-five years ago when those murderous terrorists struck at the heart of the West?

I remember it like it was this morning. I was up a ladder painting the outside of a nursing home in Kinghorn, Fife. Just an ordinary Tuesday. Then the news began to come in. Planes. Towers coming down. Fire. People running. People jumping. The Pentagon. That field in Pennsylvania. Nearly three thousand precious lives snuffed out in a few hours ~ mums, dads, secretaries, firefighters, policemen, kids on a field trip.

You know, the feelings are still raw. For the families in New York the scars go a whole lot deeper. Loved ones were murdered. First responders ran into those buildings while everybody else was running out. A lot of those heroes later died from the dust they breathed that day. The dying didn’t stop on September 11th.

I vaguely remember Billy Graham standing in the National Cathedral a few days later. He didn’t try to explain it all away. He just said we were looking at the mystery of evil. We don’t always know the why. But we do know the Who. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear…” That’s Psalm 46. That’s still the Word for us today.

They took some of that twisted steel from the towers and they put it in the hull of a Navy ship, the USS New York. “Never Forget” is written right on her. Isn’t that something? The hearts of those New Yorkers proved strong. They rebuilt. They remembered. They kept going.

Now here’s the part that just doesn’t sit right with a lot of us.

Zohran Mamdani is the new mayor of New York City, first Muslim mayor, a democratic socialist. He has called the attacks a horrific act of terror. He has signed papers making September 11th a city Day of Remembrance. He says he will stand at Ground Zero on Friday.

But many of the families who lost people that day have signed petitions asking him not to come. They remember old posts that mourned the three thousand dead in the same breath as the hundreds of thousands who died in the wars that followed. They remember an interview with a man who once said America “deserved” 9/11,  Mamdani later called those words reprehensible, but the words were said. They remember a ceremonial pen from the remembrance orders being handed to a lawyer who once represented someone tied to al-Qaeda. They remember he skipped the memorial for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing earlier this year.

That’s why some folks say he is one to watch. Not because he is a Muslim. Millions of Muslims were as horrified as the rest of us that day. We love them. We want them to know Jesus. But words matter. Associations matter. Especially when you stand on ground that is still soaked with the blood of the innocent.

Folks, listen. Evil is real. Sin is real. There are ideologies that celebrate death in the name of God, and they are real. Jesus looked straight at that kind of darkness and still prayed, “Father, forgive them.” He also said the truth will set you free. We can pray for the mayor. The Bible tells us to pray for those in authority. We can honour the office. And we can still tell the truth about what happened on that Tuesday morning in 2001.

We remember the dead.

We honour the heroes who ran toward the fire.

We refuse to forget.

And we keep our eyes on the Man of Sorrows who knows every scar. One day He will wipe away every tear. One day He will judge the living and the dead with perfect justice.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, a9-11, the Day That Shook the World, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.”

Never forget.

Never stop pointing people to Jesus.