Now that the giddiness is behind us

I wrote this as a comment to another blog that was looking at our reactions as Christians to Osama bin Laden's demise:


I think, I hope, 24 hours later, that the rejoicing was a thoughtless expression of release from the underlying fear, shame, embarrassment and anger we felt as a nation toward an enemy so elusive, it took us nearly a decade to find him.
Osama bin Laden had become for us a symbol of our incompetence, of our vulnerability and national weakness. And after several years not only of the suffering bin Laden had directly or indirectly caused, but also of the subsequent financial collapse and lingering recession, we sorely needed something positive.
And while as a Christian I would never thank God for anyone's death, I really think that as much as the man was a symbol of all that was wrong in America and I guess a boogeyman of sorts, the celebrations were more about restoring a sense of strength and competence again to our country. 
It brought out the best and the worst in us, in a sense.
I can't really honestly say I am sorry he died, but I am conflicted about how it came about. I do know, however, that for as long as humans have inhabited the Earth, there have been wars and injustice and fighting. I do not think this is anywhere near the worst thing mankind has done, but that doesn't make it right, either. I am not even sure that I have figured out what Jesus would do in this instance, either, trite as that sounds. 
Jesus would have loved Osama bin Laden as much as he loves any of us, but we have no way of knowing what was in bin Laden's heart, and if he never accepted God's love, then I've never seen any indication that God the father or Jesus force their love on anyone. 
I also do not think that God's love makes it OK to do the kinds of things bin Laden did. Unless bin Laden somehow realized the wrongness of his life's work and experienced true repentance before he died in that firefight, then I have never seen anything in Scripture that says we will be forgiven automatically. 
This conflicting thought process, along with our blindness to what is in the hearts and souls of others, (blindness in the sense of inability to know, not refusal to know), is why I believe we are told not to judge others and why we do not have the power to determine the fate of others.