Bin Laden is dead

You could tell by all the cheering.  Naturally there are some who sympathize that Bin Laden is gone.  But then, there are people who mourn Hitler.  Ironic that we found out about Bin Laden's death on the same day - May 1 - that the death of Hitler was announced.  While there is no real desire to cheer the death of any human being made in the image of God for whom Christ died, there is a feeling of justice I can't deny.  Bin Laden didn't have to die this way, bloody and violent.  He sealed his own fate by the course in life he chose - a path filled with the blood of thousands of innocents. 

Sure, there is a stale, empty feeling in it all.  I didn't lose a loved one to Bin Laden.  I can't imagine what this news will be for those who did.  Each will have his or her own way of dealing with it I guess. As a Christian, I think it falls into the notion of justice.  There is a justice in creation, a real, objective justice.  While we can pray for the Bin Ladens, the Stalins, the Hitlers, the other human nightmares of the world, there seems to be some mechanism whereby God will not be mocked.  Somehow, some way, those who do such things get theirs. 

And while loving my enemy is something we are called to do, I don't begrudge or judge those who have more difficulty than I, since I have nothing I have lost due to Bin Laden directly.  Most of my country's problems predate 9/11, and have had little to do with 9/11 since.  It's easy for me to say I forgive, or pray. I didn't lose anyone because of him.  But while it is a difficult thing to cheer at a death, I suppose if anyone deserved such  a violent, bloody death today, it was him.  And that because of the life he chose. 

So here's kudos to the military units that made this happen.  Here's to our nation and our government, enduring each other and the usual difficulties of history to see this through.   And here's to those who will grieve this man as a relative or loved one.  I suppose that would be tough to know one's loved one caused such horror and death to so many.  May God receive Bin Laden into His arms, and let His justice, mercy, and will be given in accord with God's wisdom and righteousness.