We decided to spend the night here in kind of a fractured way. Rose worked today, which is why we left in the afternoon instead of in the morning. Kim wanted to visit a good friend in Oklahoma City, who knew that sometime in August we would be coming through. Rose and I wanted to get a motel, whether Kim stayed at her friend's house or not. We booked this nice room at the local La Quinta Inn (by the way, did you know that La Quinta in Spanish means Free High-Speed Internet?) on Hotwire, so it was paid for from the moment the reservation was made. Guess what, Kim's friend thought it would be next week. She and her family are vacationing in Florida.
We checked into the motel, and drove about 10 minutes to Bricktown in downtown Oklahoma City. We had a nice meal at Zio's Italian Kitchen on the Riverwalk. From there, we drove just a little bit to the north, and visited the Oklah
oma City National Memorial. I live just about 4 hours away, but I had never visited. As I walked onto the grounds, where the Oklahoma City bombing took place on April 19, 1995, I was deeply moved. As I began to look at the names engraved on wall displays, my eyes teared up. Generally I can rein my emotions in fairly well, but I was overcome with extreme sadness. I have not been to Ground Zero (in fact, the closest I have come was as an in transit passenger at JFK, or flying through Newark, NJ, where I was able to see the Statue of Liberty). I am certain that a visit to Ground Zero would produce the same emotions. I think the only other place where I felt similar emotions was when I visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem. All hatred springs from a common source. Adolf Hitler and Timothy McVeigh both bowed to the enemy.
I am a baby boomer who no longer is an authority on contemporary music. As I walked through the memorial, a line from a Petra song kept coming through my head, "When will the world see that we need Jesus?" It is obvious to me, but I know Him!
Tomorrow will be a long day. I've been enriched, however, to visit the place where innocent people died. The testimony of faith in Jesus Christ lingers in the very site where unthinkable evil was wrought. May God be praised! May God have mercy!
Peace to you all!
DGF
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3 comments:
On a Bible Bowl trip I got to see the building all blown up. I'll never forget that sight!
I'm glad your visit to OKC was worthwhile. I'll see you on Wednesday! Don't forget to pick me up at the airport. :-)
Thanks, Terry!
You know that I knew that it was not 2006, and correctly called it a typo. I fixed it now!
Thanks! You were one of the people that I thought of when I wrote the post.
DGF
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