Is it just me, or have there been an unusual number of explosions and other disasters lately? And yet, with all the horrible things happening, the bombing at the Boston Marathon is still getting much more media coverage than the flooding and the earthquake and the fires and the factory explosions.  I suppose it's because this incident was caused by human beings deliberately trying to hurt other people. There are “bad guys” involved, and people want to see the bad guys pay. 

For reasons of their own, the media seems to be trying to paint a somewhat sympathetic picture of the two suspects.  The one they captured is so young, and they are playing that up. There’s a photo circulating of the police taking Dzhokhar Tsarnaev into custody, his face bloody and his skinny, little-boy body exposed as they drag or search him, and for a moment, I can almost feel compassion for him. 

I remember how stupid and gullible I was at nineteen, so I know people that age are not always equipped to make wise decisions. No matter how ignorant or naïve I might have been at 19, though, I knew right from wrong, at least about the big stuff, like killing people!  Even as an un-churched little girl, I knew it was wrong to hurt others.  Proverbs 20:11 says  “Even a child is known by his deeds, whether what he does is pure and right.” 

We are all given a mind and a body and the ability to choose what we use them for. This kid/murderer/terrorist, whatever you think of him as, had a choice, and he chose hatred and evil, willfully destroying lives and property, then going out to party afterward. 

And still, Christ died for him.   

And God’s Word commands us to pray for our enemies.  I like the way King David and Asaph pray in some of the Psalms, where they call down God’s wrath on their enemies, complete with colorful descriptions of some of the awful things that they hope will befall them. But Asaph gives his reason for praying that way in Psalm 83:16 Cover their faces with shame, Lord, so that they will seek Your Name. 

From the comments I’ve read, most people are crying out for Tsarnaev's blood, but God would rather he repent. “Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God,“and not that he should turn from his ways and live?...” Ezekiel 18:23  The passage goes on to say that people may think that’s not “fair”, but God points out that His ways are indeed fair, whether we like it or not. 

So I guess  I’ll have to throw in a few prayers for this family, that they will see their own wickedness and fall on their faces and repent, because Jesus paid for their sins, too. Anything is possible, right?  

But whether they accept Christ’s offer of redemption or not, I’m not obligated in any way to pray that the Tsarnaev family will escape man’s justice!