Move Through
About the Song.
On September 11, 2001, I watched in horror, most of it live on TV, as World Trade Center One and Two, the Pentagon, and United Flight 93 went up in flames ending up in a pile of rubble.
Due to the strong feelings of American patriotism that resulted from this 9/11 event, I watched many friends go off to fight terrorism in countries I hadn’t ever really heard of before (thank you, Alan Jackson, Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)).
In the winter of 2006, on a few occasions as a missionary, I met the widow of a victim in the Pentagon attack and watched her bravely carry on to serve as a medical missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
In August of 2021, I watched dumbfounded as Afghanistan, a country the United States had been assisting militarily for twenty years, was left to fend for itself against a terrorist organization.
What I’m trying to say from all these anecdotal events, is, like a lot of other Americans, I wanted to see terrorism eradicated from the face of the earth. In fact, watching and hearing about American soldiers fighting the war on terror spanned my entire adult life from seventeen to thirty-seven years of age.
Ultimately, in August of 2021, as I watched Afghanistan fall to the Taliban, feelings of sadness, anger, and incredulity raged in my heart as I thought about how American soldiers and our Allies had given their lives to make a more freedom-secure place for Afghan citizens to live and prosper, a sacrifice that created a freer and safer world. What were world leaders thinking allowing the region to go back to square one?
When I saw people falling from airplanes trying to escape at the airport in Kabul, when I saw babies being thrown over walls by parents who thought there might be a chance for them to live a better life, when I watched the Taliban take over Afghanistan city by city, all I could think of was how the last twenty-years were spent in vain.
What does this have to do with the song, you ask?
The only thing I could really do at that time was pray that all the innocent people who truly needed to get out of there would “move through” the crowds undetected and unnoticed by the enemy, just as the Savior did when his “time had not yet come” (John 7:6; see scripture references below).
I don’t know how often that prayer was answered specifically in Afghanistan, but I know there will be better, happier crowds to move through in a future blessed time with all our loved ones, through Jesus Christ.
Scripture References: Luke 4 (v. 30); John 7 (v.30), 8:20, 59, 10:39; 2 Nephi 4