In times of great tragedy, God often sends down signs that he is still looking over us, and that’s exactly what he did after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

After the 2001 terrorist attacks caused the World Trade Center to collapse on that horrific day, it took months to clean up the destruction that was left behind. In March of 2002, a cleanup crew was sifting through the remains of the South Tower when they came upon a very special piece of debris.

In the debris, a firefighter found a Bible verse fused to a chunk of rubble. Stunned by what he found, he called out to Joel Meyerowitz, a photographer standing nearby who went on to write “Aftermath: World Trade Center Archive.”

The page infused to the rubble was from the Gospel of Matthew, and it contained the verse in which Jesus gave His Sermon On The Mount and specifically addressed retaliation.

Given all of the anger and pain we were feeling as a nation in the wake of the attacks, the words in the verse are particularly powerful.

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matthew 5:38-39

Joel could not believe it when he read the verse.

“My astonishment at seeing the page that the Bible was open to made me realize that the Bible’s message survives throughout time,” Joel said, “and in every era we interpret its teachings freshly, as the occasion demands.”

Joel decided to donate the fragment to the National September 11 Memorial Museum, where it remains to this day. Find out more in the video below.