OKC Bombing: We Once Were Blind

One account from someone who witnessed the aftermath of the bombing had said on the radio that on that day of the tragedy, people from all over the state came immediately out to help, donate blood, provide blankets, and help in anyway possible. She went on to say that later after everyone had been taken out of the debris, a group of people took a step back from the incident and gathered around one another, hand in hand, and began to sing the famous hymn, “Amazing Grace”. People began to join arms and sing this hymn together as if it was a battle cry in a war zone. Those who were in the midst of the pain and sorrow, suddenly unified themselves. If you were to take an aerial picture of that scene that day, you have seen devastation, but I also Think you have would seen sure resiliency shown that day, as it has been shown so many times over and over in Oklahoma. Truly a great moment.

As I write this post, I am reminded of the last line of the 1st verse of that song Amazing Grace, it says, “…I Once Was Lost, but Now I’m Found, Was Blind, but Now I See.” In this horrible aftermath, the future of Oklahoma was blurred, the vision had been dimmed, and we could not look past what had happened. For a short time, our state had gone temporarily blind. We could not see nor grasp the madness behind the motives, we could not see where we were going, as if time stood still, and the only thing we could see was the darkness of destruction. But in the moments of help, hope, and hymn, the sight of unity was stronger than ever and amidst the disaster, our sight was beginning to be restored, because thousands of people responded to meet the needs of those were hurt and inspired hope. Too often times we only see the heartache of a tragedy, that we become blinded to the Hope of Togetherness. As I hear people who tell their story of this incident, there are many emotions of sadness, confusion, and sorrow, but one constant theme I hear is the hope and strength that they describe as they mention the people who got behind them to help and said, “Together, We Are Here For You.” Over the years, we have learned how to Rise, we have learned how to Thrive. There is a bright hope for all of us, because even though we all know where we have been, we can be encouraged to know where we are going. This is something many people overlook and my only hope is that we all get to the point in our lives when we Oklahomans, can at last say that last part of Amazing Grace is now finally true, “We Once Were Blind, but Now We See!” #WeWillNeverForget #OKCmemorial