A God of Miracles

I was touched by the story of Connie Labetti as recounted in a recent article in the LDS Living magazine by Emily Abel. She was in the second tower on September 11^th and had started descending 99 flights of stairs after the first tower was hit. The article recounts, “15 minutes into their descent, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into Connie’s tower. ‘It almost felt like a roller coaster going up and then crashing back down. If you weren’t holding on to the railing, you went flying. We knew [then] it wasn’t just a freak accident; it was an attack. It was very scary,’ Connie says. Then the stairwell became more  crowded, until Connie was shoulder to shoulder with those on either side of her. As people came to the stairs, they brought word that the Pentagon had been hit, and some said the White House was under attack. Connie began to feel panicked and started to cry. As a single mother, her mind turned to her 10-year-old son and what he would do without her if she died on those stairs. And then, exhausted and on the verge of full-blown panic, she heard a voice in her right ear—a voice she hadn’t heard in the 17 years since her father passed away. ‘You’re not going to die in this building. You’re not going to die in this building,’ Connie heard her dad say. Then, she heard another voice speaking into her left ear. This time it was her uncle, who had been a beloved father figure after her father died in 1985 until his own death in 1999. Using the nickname he had called her in life, Connie heard her uncle say, ‘Just take one step at a time, kiddo, just take one step at a time.’ ‘It sobered me up so I could continue the journey down the stairs,’ Connie says.”

                She finally made it down the stairs 45 minutes later. The article continues, “People from the stairwell began coming up and hugging her and thanking her. Confused, Connie turned to her friend and coworker Jillian and asked, ‘Why are they thanking me?’ ‘Connie, you don’t remember what you were saying when we were walking down the stairs?’ Jillian replied. Connie had no idea what she was talking about. ‘Every once in a while, you would just scream out, “We’re not going to die in the building; just take one step at a time,”’ Jillian told her. ‘I didn’t know it until I got to the bottom of the steps, but I was saying out loud what my father and uncle were telling me in my ears, and it was giving comfort to the people around me,’ Connie tells me. ‘That was a miraculous, spiritual moment on such a horrible, horrific day.’” She did make it out and to another building one block away only five minutes before the whole tower came down. On a horrific day, it was indeed a miracle as the Lord used her to help encourage so many as they descended those stairs and got out safely. This is evidence of the truth of Elder Rasband’s words in the most recent general conference: “Miracles, signs, and wonders abound among followers of Jesus Christ today, in your lives and in mine. Miracles are divine acts, manifestations and expressions of God’s limitless power, and an affirmation that He is ‘the same yesterday, today, and forever.’” He further declared, “Miracles are wrought by divine power by Him who is ‘mighty to save.’ Miracles are extensions of God’s eternal plan; miracles are a lifeline from heaven to earth…. Miracles can come as answers to prayer. They are not always what we ask for or what we expect, but when we trust in the Lord, He will be there, and He will be right. He will suit the miracle to the moment we need it.” Despite the atrocity of that day, the Lord did provide miracles then and He will do so now in our lives, even if He doesn’t always take away all the trials and troubles we face.

                One of the points that Elder Rasband emphasized in this talk was that the miracles we desire may not always come like we want. He said, “There are times we hope for a miracle to heal a loved one, to reverse an unjust act, or to soften the heart of a bitter or disillusioned soul. Looking at things through mortal eyes, we want the Lord to intervene, to fix what is broken. Through faith, the miracle will come, though not necessarily on our timetable or with the resolution we desired.” He used the example of the Savior Himself who did not invoke a miracle when He suffered for the sins of the world and died: “‘Come down from the cross,’ the crowd of nonbelievers jeered at Him on Calvary. He could have performed such a miracle. But He knew the end from the beginning, and He intended to be faithful to His Father’s plan. That example should not be lost on us.” Instead of a miracle then, the miracle, the most glorious of all, came later at the Resurrection. The miracles we desire and need may not come in the timing we want or the way we hope, but the Savior’s resurrection is a witness that they will come and if we believe, just as it did for Connie. We have His promise to us today: “For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith” (2 Nephi 27:23). Today we honor those who died that fateful day twenty years ago. Though their families did not have the miracle they hoped for, our knowledge is that one day they will all live again, the greatest miracle of all. And in awaiting that day through our faith we can still see the hand of God miraculously working in our lives.