July 28, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Monday, July 28.
On the morning of July 28, 1945, World War II was winding down. Germany had surrendered two months before, Japan would follow in two weeks. Soldiers were returning home. America was ready for a return to normal life. And then, an event occurred which sent shock waves through the nation. An event that would foreshadow 911. A B-25 bomber flew into the 80th floor of the Empire State Building.
The pilot had just returned to his family after flying 50 dangerous missions in Europe. A sailor, who had hitched a ride on the plane at the last minute, was trying to get home after receiving news that his brother had been killed in action. A dozen employees in the office of the Catholic Relief Society were at work on a Saturday, providing help to the thousands left homeless by the war. And in that moment, on a foggy morning in Manhattan... they were all lost.
But then there was Betty Lou Oliver. Twenty years old, she was working her final day as an elevator operator. Her fiancé had come home from the war and they planned to marry and return to Arkansas. The bomber hit the skyscraper at 200 miles per hour and severed the cables holding up Betty Lou’s elevator. It plunged 80 stories and crashed into the basement. Rescuers were astounded to discover that she was still alive. After ten months in the hospital she finally had her wedding. She went home, raised a family, and lived long enough to hold her great-grandchildren.
Fate. Fairness. Faith. We often wrestle with these things, these ideas. Are our lives just guided by the whims of fate? Is there no fairness to be found in tragedy? Will our faith sustain us in times of challenge and loss? The Bible character most identified with these questions is the man called Job. In Chapter 19 of his book, he has lost everything, his “friends” have brought him no comfort, he seems to be a broken man. And then he utters these famous words - “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that, in the end, He will stand upon the earth.”
Fate? Fairness? In the end... Faith.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
