Selfless, unconditional Love

Why is there such hatred in the world?  Why do people do horrible things, and say they're done in God's name?  I wonder some days . . . does God ever wish he had never made Noah the promise?   Does He ever look down on what a mess we've made of creation and wish He could erase it and start over once again?  

The God I know is a God of love.  He knows each of us personally -- from the biggest of creatures to the smallest.  And He knows our pain.  He gave His only Son -- watched him suffer and die on a cross -- so that we might live in harmony with Him.  Living in harmony and feeling His love . . . how can we help but show that love to others? 

I saw that love displayed to others 10 years ago, as I watched, horrified, as the events of 9/11 unfolded in front of me on the TV.  I watched as police and firefighters selflessly went into the towers to rescue people they had never met, only to lose their own lives.  I witnessed it as I watched people on the street help others, whose faces they had never seen before . . but that they will now never forget.  I heard of it when people on a plane banded together with strangers, and gave their lives, all to cause Flight 93 to crash so that it couldn't reach Washington D.C.  And I read about it, just a day or so ago, as the story came out about Heather Penney, a fighter pilot prepared to ram Flight 93 and give her own life to take it down, also so that it couldn't reach D.C.  

Selfless, unconditional love.  It's what God showed us when He gave His only Son so that we might have eternal life.  It is, to me, the lesson we're put here on this earth to learn.  How can we make the world a better place by showing the earth, and it's inhabitants, that kind of love?  

I remember 9/11 -- so vividly, and for different reasons.  Yes, I remember the planes.  I remember the photos.  I remember the field in PA.  But I also remember the love.  Some might call it patriotism.  Okay.  We are one nation, under God, indivisible.  I love my country, I love the tenets on which it was founded.  And I love, oh how I love, my God.  

I will also remember those who unwittingly gave their lives that day, whose lives were taken by those who have no love in their hearts.  And I will remember those who have given their lives since, to protect our freedoms, and to make right the wrong that was done 10 years ago today.   God Bless America.  God Bless our Troops.  God Bless the families of those who were lost on 9/11.  And God Bless each and every one of us, that we might try, each day, to show a little more of that selfless love to others.