The Laughter of God
When was the last time you enjoyed a good,
long, tearful, belly-laugh? You know the kind that makes you
afraid you might wet your pants. If you can’t remember
then it has been too long.
Laughter is good medicine. The Bible proclaims it—Proverbs 17:22, A
cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Research
affirms it. There have been healing studies that show that people who watch comedies
while recovering from cancer and other illnesses heal much faster than those
who don’t have humor in their healing.
It makes me wonder, was God wanting to laugh with Sarah and turn her laughter
of doubt into laughter of joy? Did she miss a spiritual experience that would
have strengthened her because she wasn’t emotionally honest with God? Do
you remember the story? God told Abraham that next year he would make Sarah pregnant—Abraham
99 and Sarah 90. That is funny, isn’t it? It makes you laugh to think of
an old, gray-haired couple having a baby naturally. God heard Sarah’s secret
laughter when He told Abraham that she would bear a son the next summer. Sarah
lied about her laughter. God insisted that she laughed even though she lied about
it—Genesis 18:15.
Sarah’s secret laughter turned to open laughter by the next season. In
Genesis 21:6 she said, God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears
of this will laugh with me. I love that the foundation of our faith was
filled with laughter. It reveals the intimacy God wants to have with us.
If you truly know God as He longs to be known by you, there will be times of
laughter with Him. You will laugh mostly at yourself and how you could have doubted
Him again after He has shown Himself faithful and merciful time after time. You
will laugh at His mercy and laugh about his goodness. Laughter is good for the
soul, so you’ve got to believe that God is in laughter!
Thinking about this caused me to think about a book I read called The Laughter
of God: At Ease With Prayer. The book taught about all the usual steps to
prayer, the pain the poverty, the power. It also lived up to its name in explaining
that you cannot know someone who won’t share their emotions. When Sarah
hid her laughter from God, she did not know Him. By the time she had her son,
she was openly laughing with God and sharing that infectious laughter with all
who knew her.
The lesson from Sarah’s life is go ahead and laugh. Have the last laugh.
Have the first laugh. Enjoy God. Enjoy His sense of humor. Find the laughter
He puts in each day and thank Him for laughter. Since we know heaven has no more
tears, might we assume that it is full of laughter!
|
