Not in this life; not in the next...

     I didn't follow the Casey Anthony trial - really was totally clueless until comments started popping up on Face Book.  Even then, I didn't start reading about it until after the verdict was read - which obviously steamed a lot of people.  So what many in the nation have been following for weeks/months, I've just been reading about over the past 24 hours or so.
    In spite of being a late-comer, like many, I believe the mom probably did it. Going back to the basics, she had the means and the opportunity and  I think it could be reasonably said that she had motive -she simply didn't want to be encumbered with a child anymore.  She didn't want a babysitter; she wanted to be totally free to pursue her own agenda.
    Like many, I feel the facts, taken as a whole, point to guilt.  The fact that Casey didn't report her child missing. Even more to the point, the fact that she covered up Caylee's disappearance for a month - something murderers (but also accomplices) do...  The fact that she borrowed a shovel and Caylee's body was found buried.  The fact that at least one expert testified that chloroform had been in Casey's trunk and that her mom said the trunk stank like a dead body had been in it. The fact that Casey's computer showed google searches for chloroform and how to break necks, not your usual search-engine topics.  The fact that the defense's explanation of these google searches did not hold water.  The fact that the child was found with masking tape around her skull - something that does not occur with drowning deaths...   The fact that Casey  was photographed happily partying a few days after her daughter disappeared.
   All these are pretty damning in my opinion.
   But I don't think the law failed.  Or the jurors screwed up.  I've read that some of the jurors have said that they wanted the prosecution to have a stronger case, they wanted enough evidence to put Casey away. They just didn't have it.
  And really, they didn't.  As a mother, I know there's something horribly wrong if you don't report that your toddler is missing and even try to hide that fact for a month.  And you for sure don't go out partying two days after your child goes missing.  But that's a gut feeling.
  In order to prove the case, they had to prove how Caylee died and they simply couldn't do that.  The body had been in the ground for too long.  That wasn't the fault of the prosecutors or the jurors.  A legal decision, especially in the case of murder, has to go by the book - not by the gut.
  But there is another legal system, as the Sullivan Four blog clearly states.  At some point, justice will be done.  In Genesis, Abraham pleads with the Lord to spare the righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah.  He argues, "Will not the Lord of all the earth do right?'  The implication being:  yes, You, the Lord will do what is right. I know that. That's why I am appealing to You for the sake of my loved ones.
   Sometimes right is so hard to balance.  The cry coming out of Sodom and Gomorrah was very great, according to the Lord.  The Holman Study Bible commentary says that it was the cry of the victims that God heard. Also,  He saw the wickedness in those cities - which included gang rape which sounds like Darfur in some ways. And He saw the righteous in those cities even though there was only a handful left - still He saw them.  He sees  the Caylee's of the world whose blood cries out from the ground (and there are many), the Casey's of the world who have no moral compunctions, only Machiavellian plans to achieve their goals (I have no regrets... I trust my judgement completely.. I can only hope the end justifies the means).  And He sees the decent people of the world who don't deserve to be swept away with the wicked.
   God sees it all and He has to judge it all.  Some of the tares cannot be separated from the wheat until the harvest is all in.  Sometimes, for whatever reason, the wheat is overcome by the tares and the weeds of wickedness seem to run rampant.   Only God can sort it all out and only when the last act is played, can all the real justice begin.
   In Genesis 15, God told Abraham what the future would hold for his descendants. He didn't hold back in his description, telling him that his offspring would be "enslaved and oppressed 400 years".(v13.)  He went on to say that He, God Himself, would judge the oppressors and return the Israelite people to their homeland after 400 years. Why so long????  Couldn't He have done it sooner? ?  Because that's how long it would take for the iniquity of a people called the Amorites to reach the place where they would be ready for judgment.  Apparently their judgement would coincide with Israel's return to their homeland. In other words, the Israelites would beat the heck out of the Amorites and take their land away from them because, behind the scenes, God had said, "Enough!  You've had plenty of time to repent! You're done! I'm sending the people of Israel to clean your plow and take your place."
   Sometimes justice is served through the law but.. it's not enough.  Always, there is God's judgment looming ahead and it will be enough.  In the meantime, I think God sometimes (not always) uses natural consequences to bring about justice as he did when the Israelites took over the Amorites.   Were the Amorites into debauchery and wickedness in violation of God's law ?  Had that wild life-style  weakened them to the point that they weren't able to stand up to the Jews who had been living off the land of Egypt, working hard as shepherds and then as slaves, eschewing the "good" life because they had no other choice?
    What I guess I'm saying here is, yes, my gut says Casey is guilty and it twists a bit when I think about the verdict.  But would I want to be Casey?  Not in this life; not in the next.  If the debauchery that marks her life doesn't take her out at a relatively young age, the company she keeps will certainly turn on her in the end.  From what I've read "hedonistic", "narcissistic", "pathological liar"  and "not a nice person" (as one juror called her) pretty much describes her, apart from the issue of murder.  As Beth Moore likes to say, "Baggage attracts baggage."  Or as one of my son's friends put it a while back - nice, quiet guys don't run with wild, nasty girls.  In the end, slime calls to slime and I really don't believe that Casey will get off in this life or in the next. I think she carries the seeds of her own judgment within her and I don't think any sane person would want to trade places with her, the current verdict notwithstanding.