Dancing in the Street at Bin Laden Death

“Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live…”Ezekiel 33:11

Sunday I left church stating that I had no enemies, anyone that had ever done anything to me I had already forgiven. However when I think of the horrible attack on the innocent people of 9/11 I doubt that the husbands, wives, and children of the victims feel the same as I do.

In a blog a wrote a while back “ He Will Wipe the Tears From Your Eyes” I spoke about a tribe in Africa that when one of its member experienced a lost the whole tribe would circle him and just cry with him/her until the pain went away. They would not eat for hours, sometimes they would not stop even to eat for days trying to cry out all the tears that was just too much for their fellow tribesmen to cry all by themselves.

And that is just what this great country did when we felt universally the pain of our brother and sisters that had personally experienced the attack of 9/11. I know that I personally remember seeing the towers fall and the tears roll down my face in the lobby of 714 market st. as I struggled with the reality of what I was seeing. There was no one in the lobby to console but sitting there alone I could sense the magnitude of the pain that this country would have to endure.

Spiritually and physically this entire country came together with our brothers and sisters and we mourned and we hurt and we cried just like the tribe in Africa trying to cry the tears that were just too many for families of the 3000 lost to cry by themselves.

But now that Osama Bin Laden is dead do we cheer at his demise, celebrate his death, do we forget how much we regarded with contempt, disgust, and disdain the video clips of the people in the Middle East dancing in the street at the attack on us. Or do we jump for joy and become the very same thing in which we so horribly loath?

Will this provide closure to the families of the 3000 victims? For some it might but for most it won’t. 10 years from now the only memories some young adults will have of their fathers, and mothers, and other loved ones will be video clips of falling towers, and vague memories of a country celebrating the death of the man responsible for those falling towers.  Is this what we want history to be in the hearts of our future? If so than let us dance in the streets, but when we dance let’s not forget that our dancing effects not just our past but also our future.

Soli Deo Gloria