More from Christina Ray Stanton

This picture was taken just two weeks before the attacks, from our 24th-floor balcony, six blocks from the twin towers. It’s the only photo we ever took of them.

At the time, my husband and I had just moved into that apartment on July 7, 2001—our very first NYC home as a married couple. We were still swept up in the joy of it all. We had met and married within nine months. Brian was thirty-three, I was thirty (eleven days after the attacks, I would turn thirty-one). We had a new dog, a new apartment, and what felt like a brand-new lease on life. Everything about that season felt fresh and full of promise.

We had no idea how quickly it would all change—the horrific witness of that second plane crash; outrunning collapsing buildings, covered in dust, unable to breathe; believing we were about to die and whispering our goodbyes; weeks displaced from our home, haunted by PTSD. Our lives were so violently upended that in many ways we’ve never fully recovered.

This year I was diagnosed with uterine cancer and have undergone two surgeries. That cancer has been tied to 9/11 and the toxic dust. The truth is, 9/11 isn’t only in our past—it’s still unfolding in our present. (I’ve written about our full experience here: www.christinaraystanton.com.)

In this photo, the camera caught only about seventy stories of the towers—its lens too limited to capture all 110. Looking back, it feels like a metaphor: just as we couldn’t take in their full height, we couldn’t have imagined the depth of change 9/11 would bring into our lives.

Now, twenty-four years later, nearly everything that makes up our lives—especially our relationship with Christ—has roots in that day.

The life we thought was carefully planned for ourselves was overturned and reshaped—not according to our plans but God’s. And for that, and for every day we are given, we are thankful.

When I look at this picture now, I see not only who we were, but also who we would become through God’s transforming love and power. In one image, I see our past, our present, and our future—woven together by grace.