Kishkush spoke again at Wesley’s church during the Sunday morning service. I went with Wesley to hear her speak on Sunday.

Kishkush says that people always ask her two things: 1) Where was God on that day? and 2) Why did this happen?

Her answers are profound and probably not what you expect.

Kishkush said that after the attack well meaning people would try to somehow make sense of the attack by saying things like, “God has a plan for you” or “God is in control”. To Kishkush, those statements don’t bring any kind of sense to the tragedy she has experienced.

Kishkush shared that through this she has learned that “working it out is not a prerequisite for understanding”.

Human nature wants to work it out (the bad things that happen in life) and make sense of it.

That statement is so profound to me because human nature wants to make sense of even a horrible tragic event like the one Kishkush went through on December 18, 2010 and the one that happened 10 years ago today on September 11, 2001.

But there is no sense to be made of one human being stabbing another human being multiple times, over and over again. And there is no sense to be made of human beings hijacking airplanes and flying them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing hundreds upon hundreds of innocent lives.

There is nothing that can make what Kishkush has experienced better.

In her booklet Kishkush writes, “I will never forget the attack and I will never get over it, but I believe that I will get through it, and it is the love of God Himself, expressed through others, that is pushing me through. It is a process that will take a lifetime. And that’s okay.”

Human nature wants to “work it out”.

Sometimes, something is so tragic, it just can’t be “worked out” and “made sense of”.

Kishkush has learned that is okay.

During the final moments as she stood before the congregation Sunday morning, she answered the two questions people always ask her.

Where was God on that day?

Kishkush said, “He was there. He was there in the beautiful blue sky and in the birds singing.”

Why did it happen?

Kishkush simply said, “I don’t know. It just did.”

I think we could say the same for the events of 9/11. God was there in the way humanity came together in those moments, months and years after the attack and we will never be able to make sense of 9/11.

Over the past almost 9 months, Kishkush has learned that evil and good reside side by side.

I love the way Kishkush described this. Forgive me because I am about to explain something without using proper musical terms because I have forgotten the musical vocabulary Kishkush used to explain this.

Kishkush played something on the piano at first that sounded harsh and wasn't very pleasant to listen to. Then, she played that part along with some harmony (or melody?? or something like that) and then it sounded beautiful all together.

That’s how she describes the attack. The "bad" and the "good" were both present that day.

Kishkush is learning to do life with that “terrible, yet very sacred, day” a part of her life forever.

As I have thought about 9/11 today, I have prayed that the family and friends of those who lost their lives on that horrid day have been able to somehow bring some “melody” back into the song of life. That harsh sound of that day will always be, but I pray that somehow, someway, there has been some beauty added back into the song of their lives.

- Elaine