As I’m writing this the United States recently observed the 7th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. As you read this you will be preparing for the 2,008th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ. An event earlier this year built an interesting bridge between the two.

The event was the christening of a new Navy warship named the USS New York. Its name already marks this ship as unusual since Navy policy reserves state names only for nuclear submarines. An exception had to be made to name this amphibious assault vessel after the state in which the World Trade Center once stood. Even more unusual is the fact that 24 tons of steel used in this 25,000-ton vessel came from the twisted steel salvaged from Ground Zero. This steel was melted down in a foundry in Louisiana. More than seven tons of that steel was cast into the bow stem of the new ship. Even in the wake of the destruction of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the building of this ship continued. Workers, then dealing with the loss of their own homes and lives, returned to work—out of loyalty to those who had made the sacrifice on 9/11. The ship’s motto is “Strength Forged Through Sacrifice. Never Forget.”

One article about this ship had the subtitle, “Out of the Rubble” (Reader’s Digest, Sept. 2008, p. 30). That subtitle brought Isaiah’s words to mind: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit” (Isaiah 11:1).

Isaiah pictures the once great nation of God’s people as a towering tree. There never was a nation like this nation, a nation which God loved dearly and dealt with graciously. But the people forgot. They forgot the God who blessed them. They forgot to read his Word. They forgot to give him thanks and honor. They forgot to follow his commands. Then one day came the tree’s 9/11. Like the Twin Towers, it toppled with a horrific crash. At ground zero was a stump, that’s all. Nothing left. Only rubble. The people of God were not his people any more—only a twisted mass of humanity with no hope and no peace.

Isaiah predicted a shoot. Just as the USS New York had something from the rubble of the Twin Towers, so this shoot had something of the toppled tree in him. He had humanity. In the divine plan this humanity was forged into the Godhead in a way that no one can comprehend. The result was something new—the God-man, Jesus Christ.