I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20.

Stanley Praimnath sat at his desk on the eighty-first floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Suddenly the nose of a 767 jet filled the sky outside his window. He dropped the phone and dove under his desk. Steel shrieked against steel as the ceiling crashed down. Electrical wires sparked. Desks and filing cabinets hurtled across the room. Smoke poured in. Stanley started sobbing and then praying.

People fled the building by the thousands. Horribly burned and profusely bleeding, they stumbled down darkened staircases.

Brian Clark was running down from the eighty-fourth floor when he heard cries for help. It was Stanley, who had somehow managed to crawl through the rubble but was now trapped under a fallen wall.

Brian pulled away charred debris and shattered doors. Finally he reached the desperate man. "You have got to make it through the wall,” he yelled. "I can’t,” Stanley replied. "You have to do this,” Brian shouted back. Stanley clawed his way until he was partly free, and Brian pulled him from the rubble. The two strangers hugged like brothers. When they finally got outside, with tears in his eyes Stan looked at Brian and said, “Keep in touch, because I owe you my life.”

When I think of the amazing love that saved me my heart too cries out, “Lord, I want to keep in touch, because I owe You my life.” The essence of the Christian life is fellowship with God. When two people are in love, they long to be together. Separation is painful. When we fully sense Jesus’ love and commitment in saving us, our hearts respond in love. We long to be with Him. We want to spend time with Him in fellowship. We don’t want to be separated from His love for an instant. "The price paid for our redemption, the infinite sacrifice of our heavenly Father in giving His Son to die for us, should give us exalted conceptions of what we may become through Christ. . . . 'Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God,’ 1 John 3:1. What a value this places upon man” (Steps to Christ, p. 15).

God values us highly. He loves us immensely. He longs to be with us intensely. His love breaks our hard hearts and draws us to Him. Through Calvary we owe Him our lives. The least we can do is to give back to Him the lives He redeemed and gave to us.