AHHH, it’s here, it’s finally here! It’s a time to laugh, though not everyone likes to laugh. When teaching in New York, I had a supervisor who’d tell me different things needing to be done. She would also point out negative things she’d seen around the room. I’d laugh. She’d get upset and say, “Why do you laugh?” “What’s so funny?” I told her a few times, “It’s either laugh or cry, so I rather laugh. The expectancies were ridiculous.
My wife often says, “Ha, ha. Very funny.” She doesn’t always laugh. Same thing with our oldest daughter (arms in casts) but, they do have their moments, and when they laugh, they laugh hard. I guess it’s accumulated laughter.
“Laughter is like taking a good medicine” (Proverbs 17:22). We don’t always want to have a prune-face, or be a sour-pus. Laughter offsets the sad and hurtful things going on in our lives. It reminds us of better times; both from the past, and those to look forward to. Laughter says, this ordeal is over! People in scripture laughed.
“Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born to him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear” (Genesis 17:17)?
When 90-year-old Sarah was told she’d have a baby, she laughed (Genesis 18:12)! What woman wouldn’t?
“And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me” (Genesis 21:6).
Imagine the Hebrews, who after 430 years of slavery, were now set free! Their expressions are quoted below:
“Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them” (Psalm 126:2).
Are you still doubting you should have anything to laugh about?
“Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep, for you shall laugh” (Luke 6:21).
My wife and I recently laughed at something our youngest daughter shared. As a family of bookworms, it was only natural that during the passing of hurricane Helene, our two daughters along with two kids and a husband of one of them, shelter-in-place in the laundry room to read. The youngest picked out a book for her sister. It was one she gifted her when she married-13 years ago! Having never read it she didn’t remember she had it. She enjoyed it so much, she wished there were more. Ta-da, her sister had 7 more for her to enjoy! She was hooked!
That’s life; we’re sometimes so busy, we don’t find time to enjoy good times or the gift of laughter. Now, I’m not in any way promoting the silliness of just laughing like you’re nuts, and claiming it’s the Holy Spirit. Laugh at funny things. Laugh at things you do, or mistakes you make. Laugh at life.
One of my brother’s funny verses is, Song of Solomon 6:11: “I went down to the garden of nuts…” He always said crazy people lived there!
We’ve had a ton of trials. Most, not funny at all. But we’ve learned to laugh at some of them. Here’s a pic. from late night, June 5th, 1981, hours before we tied the knot! We don’t recall the joke, but know it had to do with chicken, since we bought a box of 26 whole chickens for $28! That would be our wedding meal with all the other goodies cooked by our church friends. Evidently, we were having a blast!
Laugh while you can!
Sam
