In Perfect Peace

September 1, 2002 - On what seemed like a typical September morning in suburban Washington, D.C., Peggy Beamer decided to run some errands. Her husband, David, was on a business trip in California.

by Greg Asimakoupoulos

As she drove, she heard on the radio the news of the hijackings and plane crashes. Feeling heartsick, she returned home, thinking about all those who had been killed or hurt.

And then the phone rang.

"My oldest daughter called to tell me that Todd was scheduled to fly from Newark to San Francisco," Peggy recalls. "I was concerned. Then a short time later Lisa called. She said that Todd was ticketed on the plane that had gone down southeast of Pittsburgh.

"When Lisa called back a few hours later, confirming Todd’s death, my world went dark," Peggy says. "I called David in California and gave him the news. Gratefully, in the midst of that unthinkable nightmare, the Lord held me."

Peggy says that the pain of Todd’s death was eased because of her practice of keeping her mind on God through daily devotions. "One verse I clung to," she says, "was Isaiah 26:3: ‘You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.’"

Peggy has found strength recalling how the values she and David modeled led Todd to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and helped shape Todd’s character.

One of those values was weekly worship. Although David’s career required weekly travel, David always made sure that he attended church. Todd emulated that example by teaching the high school class in his home church in New Jersey.

Another value was daily Bible reading. Each morning at the breakfast table Peggy would read to her three children a chapter from the book of Proverbs.

Now, having modeled Christian faith before her children, Peggy relies on that faith in the aftermath of September 11. "What gives me the ability to go on," she says, "is the knowledge that we will see Todd again because of what God the Father did when He allowed His only Son to give His life for us. I know that God understands what David and I are experiencing."