Twist of fate

I walked into my parents' house yesterday morning to get a ride to church, and my mother told me that "Mr. Yakubu"'s son had been killed. Mr. Yakubu has done various jobs for my dad for over ten years, and we've known their family forever, it seems. Naturally, I was stupefied that his son had been killed. As I asked, "How?" I automatically assumed he'd been killed in a car accident. That just seems to be the most common way to be killed around here. So my jaw dropped when my mom said he had been among the armed robbers at Miango.

Wow. I just don't know what to think. Obviously, I grieve with the Yakubus. How awful for a Christian couple to lose their eldest son in a vigilante execution because he was an armed robber! I'm not a proponent of capital punishment, but until yesterday, at least I thought, "Well, maybe they did deserve it, having done the robbery before. Didn't they know the risks of violent crime?" But how can I say that now? Now that I know a woman friend whose son was killed? Is this justice? Retribution?

Is God happy? I cannot presume to know the mind of God, but from what I understand of Him, somehow I think He is grieving more than anyone else.