She goes through a tunnel and enters this beautiful atrium filled with light and peacefulness. She takes her place in a line of people waiting for their turn before The Judgment Seat, which will confirm her eternal destination. She has a glow to her face, which enhances her lovely smile. All the lines and creases that in life bore the signs of age and illness have smoothed away. The person ahead of her in line welcomes her and shares her joy. Another person has filed in behind her. She turns to extend a warm greeting to the newcomer and her face, while still radiant, scrunches up in horror. Osama Bin Laden, eyes wide in surprise has filed in behind her. He says to her, “Why am I in this line behind you, woman?”. Aunt Sue simply gapes at him, and looks around exasperated and asks in her Tennessean drawl, “Am I in Hell? Are you serious? I have to wait next to you? Don't you touch me, Mister! I'm not one of your 40 virgins, (“I should say not, Madam!”) and if you think that's what you're in for once you get through this line anyhow let me tell you, I am sure you are mistaken......” and she continues to speak her mind to a confused Bin Laden for the next hundred years or so. Heaven for Aunt Sue, but certainly not what the Al Qaeda figurehead expected.
This morning, as I was washing the sleep away from my face, I herd my Beloved exclaim over his breakfast burrito “HOLY CRAP! They got Bin Laden!” I ran into the kitchen to verify what I had heard, and as Tony wiped the egg off his Droid, turned on the television. I was greeted with a visual montage of crowds in Washington, New York, and Philadelphia waving American flags and singing our National Anthem during President Obama's words of remembrance :
“The images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory.....And yet we know that the worst images are those that were unseen to the world: The empty seat at the dinner table; Children who are forced to grow up without their mother or their mother or their father; Parents who will never know the feeling of their child's embrace. …..After nearly 10 years of service, struggle and sacrifice, we know well the costs of war. These efforts weigh on me every time I, as commander in chief, have to sign a letter to a family that has lost a loved one or look into the eyes of a service member who's been gravely wounded...... And on nights like this one, we can say to those families who have lost loved ones to Al Qaeda's terror, justice has been done.”
Really? Has it?
After I heard that statement, I (rather Geekily, I know) recalled the words of JRR Tolkien speaking as Gandalf Greyhelm:“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
I do understand the “feeling of closure” part. Many times in my role as a mother, I have wanted the rip the hair out of someone who hurt my child, so, the dramatic murder of the person who is responsible for leading the people who killed your loved one has to be satisfying on some level. We are a bloodthirsty people when we have been wronged. We have fantasies about what we believe some people “deserve”. Our country is founded on the very principle of “liberty and justice for all”, but we only really want it because we feel we are entitled to all the good things it implies. But, I'm going to be honest with you, I don't want all the things I deserve. I do deserve justice, and would be in a world of hurt if I got it. I have wronged, hurt and disappointed people, and in some (not many, but some) cases, I do not feel remorse in the slightest. I deserve death, just as Osama Bin Laden did. Now, I'm certainly NOT putting myself in the “Pure Evil” category of Bin Laden, Hitler, Idi Amin, but does rejoicing in their slaughter really make me any better than those who danced in the street after the attacks on our citizens?
I really wrestle with this. How do I reconcile my idea of “justice” with my belief in a God who loves us all exactly as we are and desires a relationship with each and every one of us, Hitler included?
This morning, my mental conflict led me to the Biblical account of The Exodus, and Pharaoh Amenhotep II. I read how God gave Pharaoh multiple opportunities and provided several miraculous wonders to reveal Himself to the Egyptian king, and it was Pharaoh's Pride that hardened his heart toward those efforts (Exds.7). I have to believe that Dictators and terrorists are at various points in their lives given those same opportunities, and once they have hardened their hearts for good, God deals with them and uses their defeat for the good of His own people. Do they "deserve" those opportunities? No. It's because GRACE is free and is precious and amazing! I also believe that God not only grieves for the suffering inflicted at the hand of those same dictators, but also for the personal relationship He Himself is denied and the transformation He desires to perform in their lives.
And while I agree that the assassination of Osama Bin Laden was probably necessary I take no joy in it. I love, respect, and and am grateful to the members of our armed forces who risk their lives in order to make the world a safer place, but I weep for what those individuals have to go through to train and condition themselves in preparation to kill those who stand in opposition. That our human condition makes it necessary to sanction murder in pursuit of security. That we live in a world where we have to program people to disconnect from their own emotions in order to do their job effectively. What are those brave, adored, selfless servicemen left with after the parades are over and the medals have tarnished? How does someone who proudly and courageously had no choice but riddle another person from head to toe with ammunition or perform an attack which may have cost the lives not only of enemies, but innocent civilians reconcile that within themselves once they come home? These are those worst images that are “unseen to the world”.
I thank you brave soldiers for gladly risking life and inner peace for my sorry behind.
As Navy Seals Team 6 is paraded around in a traveling paparazzi circus, and the young man who's bullet ballistics will reveal dealt the fatal blow is heralded as a modern day Buzz Aldren, remember what in his soul it must cost for one man to take the life of another. This is the true “cost of war”.
“Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles.” (Proverbs 24:17)
