A Memorial kind of Memorial Day

I know Memorial Day was almost two months ago, but I'm finally getting around to documenting our day. It was a rather warm day, but we decided to spend it in the city with the Cabes [they're on staff with Cornerstone].  We arrived just in time for the Shake Shack to open [you can get a glimpse of that meal here] and enjoyed a nice lunch in Madison Square Park.

Our main attraction for the day was the 9/11 Memorial. "It commemorates the lives lost, recognizes the thousands who survived, and allows visitors to come together again in the spirit of unity that emerged in the wake of 9/11." [quote taken from a pamphlet we received at the memorial] The rebuilding has already begun. You can currently see the "Freedom Towers" in the midst of construction.

A little patriotic shot for ya.

The memorial consists of two pools set in the footprints of the original Twin Towers. These are where the towers used to stand. Thirty-foot waterfalls [the largest in North America] cascade into the pools, each then descending into a center void.

Click to enlarge so that you can get a better view!

The names of the victims are inscribed in bronze parapets around the pools. The arrangement of names is based on layers of "meaningful adjacencies" that reflect where the victims were on 9/11 and relationships they shared with others who were lost that day, honoring requests from victims' families for specific names to be next to one another.

After taking this picture, I rested my purse on the wall to put the brochure and my camera up. I was then approached and scolded by a guard, asking me not to put my belongings on the names. Enter the feeling of absolute shame and insensitivity... I felt like such a terrible person. 

They also had an interesting little thing called the "Survivor Tree." All but one of the trees on the Memorial are swamp white oaks. The exception is a Callery pear tree that is now known as the "Survivor Tree." This tree was planted on the original World Trade Center plaza in the 1970s, and stood at the eastern edge of the site near Church Street. After 9/11, workers found the damaged tree, reduced to an eight-foot-tall stump, in the wreckage at Ground Zero.

The tree was nursed back to health in a local park and grew to be 30 feet tall. In March 2010, the tree was uprooted by severe storms, but true to its name, it survived.

In December 2010, the tree returned to the WTC site. "Standing just west of the south pool, it embodies the story of survival and resilience that is so important to the history of 9/11." Today, the tree is supported by temporary guide wires as it takes root.

The closing paragraph of the Memorial's mission statement says this:
May the lives remembered, the deeds recognized, and the spirit reawakened be eternal beacons, which reaffirm respect for life, strengthen our resolve to preserve freedom, and inspire an end to hatred, ignorance, and intolerance.

The language used in this statement is beautiful, but still falls short. I say that not out of disrespect, but with excitement because it is Christ who will reawaken and restore. It is Christ who brings freedom and will one day bring an end to "hatred, ignorance and intolerance." We are groaning. Come, Lord Jesus.