Inspirational Sunday

Bill Witcher, co-founder of Computer School for Seniors will be sharing words of encouragement, inspiration and hope with you each Sunday.

“A Miracle on the Hudson”

The news has been terrilble this year. One bank failure after another. A record number of bankruptcies, job layoffs and business closings. You cannot pick up a newspaper, turn on the TV or check the Internet without being bombarded with bad news. It’s been that kind of a year. Downright depressing.

Then, during the middle of January, we hear a news bulletin about a plane crash in New York. A US Airways jetliner with 150 passengers and 5 crewmembers on board goes down after taking off from LaGuardia. That’s just what we need…more bad news…a plane crash in New York in a heavily populated area where millions of people live. But wait. This is not bad news, this is good news. Everyone survived.


In what New York’s governor called “a miracle on the Hudson,” a veteran pilot, Chesley Burnett “Sully” Sullenberger glided a US Airways jetliner with two dead engines onto the river’s fridgid surface so smoothly that all of the passengers and crew escaped serious injury. Some didn’t even get their feet wet. Unbelievable. It was “a miracle on the Hudson.” And I don’t know about you, but I followed that story and rejoiced and praised our Lord. I couldn’t read enough about it. I couldn’t watch enough interviews. Thank you Lord. We needed a miracle. With all the doom and gloom, we needed a bright spot, some rays of hope. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, “This is a story of heroes, something straight out of a movie script…it was too good to be true.”

Well, let me tell you this “feel good” story continues on. Just last week, I received some photos from a friend who lives in New Jersey. They had to bring in a giant crane and a barge to help pull the plane from the waterway. Once they pulled it out of the Hudson, they had to move it back to LaGuardia by detouring through East Rutherford NJ. Obviously their roads were not made to accommodate airliners. Take a look at these great photos he shot as they delicately moved the plane through the narrow streets. The miracle continues.

Bill Witcher is co-founder of Computer School for Seniors (http://www.cs4seniors.com/)