Strangers in the Park

Some stories are meant to be told and retold – to remind us of the most important things – the things we are most likely to forget in the ordinariness of our daily busy lives. When the extraordinary happens we celebrate – in story, song, through the arts. This is my celebration of a time when I saw God move in an extraordinary and a compassionate way – and it reminds me always to be on the lookout for what he’s doing, everywhere I go, in everyone I meet.

Our training session ended for the day and three of my colleagues and I decided to drive down to Liberty Park to see the Tribute in Light at Ground Zero. We were at a retreat center in the mountains of Northern N.J. at the end of March 2002 – it would be our last chance to see the Tribute.

The night was wild. Winds whipped the snow every which way and it was cold – even for someone who lives just below the Canadian border! We had to take twisted wet mountain roads down to the freeway, and felt a little nervous. We’d need to at least drive the speed limit in order to get to the Park before closing – which we thought was 11PM. My friends asked me to pray for us before we pulled out of the drive.

Earlier that morning I had been encouraged to pray very specifically by something I’d read in my time alone with God. So, as I prayed for safety for us, I added a prayer that God would give us a divine appointment – that He would cross our path with someone who needed a word or touch from Him. Frankly, I felt quite confident praying that way, because I was picturing a park full of hundreds of grief-stricken people! All four of us said “Amen,” and we were on our way.

We arrived at Liberty Park a little after 10PM. No one else was there, much to our surprise! The Statue of Liberty stood off to our right – an oasis of light in the darkness and swirling snow. She was lovely. The Tribute appeared in front of us, and we fell silent – solemn… Sad. The parking lot recommended to us by friends from the City was closed, so we turned down another road in the strangely deserted park. At the intersection of these roads a sign had been blown over face down by the wind.

Not very far along the road, a long white police van pulled out in front of us. This was a welcome sight, because we weren’t sure where to leave the car. The officer rolled down his window as we rolled down ours, and we asked him for his suggestion. He suggested that we leave – the park closed at 9PM! We should have known, he said, because we’d driven right past the “PARK CLOSED – DO NOT ENTER” sign! (The sign that had blown over in the wind.) We apologized and explained that we’d not seen the sign, and asked if we could just take a couple of pictures and then leave – we’d come a long way… The officer very graciously gave us permission to take a few pictures and then leave immediately, and showed us where to park.

The wind was powerful, whipping across the water. We talked quietly – reverently. The Tribute was beautiful, two great beacons of light stretching far past the lights of Manhattan into the heavy clouds. Gerry set up his tripod in the dark, fumbling with frozen fingers to get the proper lens on his camera. All of us shivered in the cold.

Gerry snapped a number of photos and each time the snowflakes swirling in the air around him were lit by the flash like miniature fireworks. My mind holds that image as clearly as the image of the twin beacons of light – frozen moments – poignant memories.

As the camera was being put away, another police van pulled alongside us. This time I thought we were in trouble – that the officer we’d spoken with had forgotten to let the others know he’d given us permission to take photos. As the young officer in the van rolled down his window, I thought he was going to tell us we were trespassing. Instead, he called out to us with laughter, “This is a strange way to be spending Spring Break!”

We laughed and walked over to the van to explain that we were just leaving. Instead of rolling up his window and driving away, he began to tell us his story.

On the morning of September 11 he had been sitting right where we were standing, supervising a detail of prisoners as they worked in the park. He heard a plane roar in, deafeningly close, and looked up to see it strike the first Tower. Immediately he called his mother’s office – she worked across from the Towers – and told her colleagues to evacuate the building no matter what anyone else said – he felt the act had been deliberate. Half of her building collapsed later when the Towers fell.

He told us of the terror everyone felt when the second plane hit and all went black. Over the radio they began to hear of the Pentagon strike and the President being evacuated. Literally, they (Police and prisoners) thought they were witnessing the end of the world. The prisoners begged to be released. He handcuffed them, loaded them into the van and drove them to the nearest holding facility. Three hours after the first plane struck, he was at Ground Zero helping to comb through the rubble for survivors.

He was still having nightmares, he told us. Describing in detail the horrific sights of that day, he told us that many people like him were beginning to break down. We could understand why. Among other things, he had pulled the torso of a young woman from the wreckage! In my heart and mind I felt an overpowering urge to pray for this man. This had to be the “Divine Appointment!” Especially when he revealed that this was his last night at the park… And we shouldn’t even have been there at all! If the “PARK CLOSED – DO NOT ENTER” sign had not blown over on its face, we wouldn’t have been.

After what seemed like quite a while (standing as we were in the cold), he paused for breath… My colleague Joel took the moment to ask his name. I’ll call him “Bob.” At that moment I asked, “Bob, you have been through so much, do you mind if we pray for you?” His whole demeanor relaxed and he acted as if we’d just offered him a generous gift. As I prayed for him, Joel silently prayed for me – that the words I prayed would not be mine, but God’s – just for Bob.

When I finished praying, Bob asked us to wait a minute while he drove back to his office to get us maps of the park. He told us enthusiastically that we should come back “when the park is open!” Just as he left us, the Tribute shut off for the night – it was 11PM. We walked back to the car – by this time absolutely FROZEN… and waited for him to return. When he pulled up behind us, Gerry got out to take the maps from him – but he came to us instead. He came to where I was sitting and I opened the car door… he handed me a hard hat. “I wore this that morning,” he said, “the 11^th – as I was trying to help find survivors… I want you to have it. I’m ready to part with it now.” I was overwhelmed. As he walked back to his van I thought desperately that I wanted to give him something, too, but I had nothing with me!

I slapped at my coat pockets – I don’t know what I thought I might find except used tissues – but I hit something small, a tin of mints my son had given me for my birthday just over a week before. They were mints he’d bought at a Christian bookstore, and I knew they had scripture written on the inside cover of the tin. I was just going with the flow of what was happening, and figured the Scripture would somehow have to be just the word Bob needed to have from God, so I got out of the car and ran back to the van just as Bob was getting in. “Bob,” I said, “I don’t have anything to give you like what you’ve just given me, but this tin of mints is precious to me because my son gave it to me for my birthday – there are words written on the inside of the tin that I want you to be sure to read.” Bob took the tin from me and we parted. I never saw him again, but I have never forgotten him.

God had so obviously set the whole thing up! We celebrated in the car and told our story to our colleagues when we returned to the retreat center a little after midnight.

The scriptures on the inside of that treasured tin of mints? Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”