Belly Laughs

The old cliche goes, "Laughter is the best medicine" and to a large extend I believe it. Next to prayer, meditation on God's word and the counsel and comfort of good friends, there can be little better comfort.

God certainly has a well developed sense of humor (where else would our humor come from were it not from the Creator?). Issac (his name means "he laughs") brought great joy to his parents Sarah and Abraham in that he was born to them well past their child-bearing years and for the rest of his life, his name carried the laughter of that blessing from the Lord.

Recently, a friend sent me a video of a child laughing that was just priceless. The "trigger" for the child is a simple sound an adult male (I assume to be his Daddy) makes out of the view of the camera. The child's anticipation of the impending noise and his subsequent laugh is part of the fun. He knows it is coming and only the slightest noise will set him off (I'm smiling just writing about it). Click here if you want to see it and laugh with us.

I truly want to be the kind of spirit that even in the midst of trouble or pain can anticipate laughter will come. A Psalm of Moses includes this line: "Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days" (Ps. 90:14). Only God's unfailing love can be a sure provider for genuine joy.

Thoughts of raising our daughters came back to me seeing this video. I recalled my wife and I playing this same game with them, provoking them to deep belly laughs. The belly laugh is "one of a kind" and yet shared by children all over the world. It comes from way down deep in the gut and then bursts out of faces filled with glee. There are few better sights in the world!

Today, I'm thankful God has given us the gift of laughter. As with many things in this world, children seem to do some things better than we adults do. Laughter may be one of those things. Perhaps this is another indicator of something Jesus said about being like children...

"And he said: 'I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like
little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 18:3