Monday, May 2, 2011

Osama bin Laden

Forgive him all his sins, O Lord,
For he knew not what he did.
And, that we may more closely resemble Thee,
Grant us grace also to forgive him.

5 comments:

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

Forgiveness does NOT mean "it's all okay"! No, it will never, this side of the last Day, be okay, what bin Laden did.

Forgiveness means we hold no grudge, we do not hope he roasts in hell forever, even though we think he certainly deserves to.

If we haven't the love to forgive someone for his sake, we at least forgive him for our own sake, lest the unforgiveness in us eat us alive; and for Christ's sake, that He may succeed in saving us, at least.

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

...and, of course, it's really not up to us, as servants of the Most High, to form opinions about what the Master ought to do with anyone else.

David Garner said...

This is something I struggle with. Thanks for so beautifully expressing our proper attitude toward even the "worst" of mankind (as to that, don't I confess myself chief among sinners each week, and rightly so? Why is it so hard to actually believe that which I so cavalierly say?).

Anam Cara said...

Nicely said.

This morning when I heard the news, I just couldn't be happy.

I may not be certain exactly what the right response is, but I knew it wasn't dancing on the Mall to "Party in the U.S.A." (as much as I like the song).


All I could think of was John Donne: "Any man's death affects me because I am involved in mankind. Therefore, do not send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee." (or something like that)

Emily H. said...

Our kids saw it on the news this morning (I had to turn the channel though...) but it gave us a chance to talk about it. Evelyn thought that Osama must be very afraid now that he's standing before God.