In All Seriousness, Laugh

He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.

Job 8:21

Thoughts roll through the inner web of my mind something like this, question, quick question, maybe, why, what about this, perhaps it is this, question, hmm…, I don’t think that is the answer, question again. Not quite as chaotic as a small metal sphere inside a pinball machine, but yeah, kinda close. Let’s just say at any given moment, I have probably got a question. Sometimes I have a question about Jesus. Well actually, lots of times I have a question about Jesus. And sometimes He gives me an answer.

For whatever reason my mind has landed on the passage in John 2. A passage that takes us to a wedding celebration in Cana. Jesus is there with His disciples and His mother, along with some thirsty guests who have prematurely finished off the wine provision. In other words, the host has run out of wine. Now I am not really all that concerned about the wine, perhaps they drank an awful lot and they are not that concerned either. Although I would suppose the host is concerned, because no one likes to run out when throwing a party. Shifting from lack of wine, my thoughts come back to Jesus and what it might be like to go to a party with Him.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go to a wedding party with Jesus? (If not, you should, because if you read all the way through to the end of Revelation you will find that is where the story is headed…)

Anyway, back to Jesus.

It is here the questions begin to roll. Does He dance? Is He standing in the corner away from the people, quiet and watching to see who is behaving and who is not (somehow I think not)? Is He happy to be there, does He even like the bride and groom, or is He thinking, “this will never last?” Does anyone notice Him? Is He laughing?

Is He laughing?

And all of a sudden, that is what I really want to know. Is He laughing? And is it contagious? Is it inclusionary? Do the people around Him feel it and join in? Of all the laughs to ever bounce along the surface of the earth, is His the warmest?

Now before you begin to accuse me of being blasphemous and direct my thinking back to a holy, just, all-powerful, righteous God, let us take a peek in the Book and see what it says. I think you may be awfully relieved to see that this holy, just, all-powerful, righteous God has somehow managed to include laughter in His repertoire of attributes.

“So God made man in His own image, in the image of God He created them” (Genesis 1:27). Do we laugh? Hmm…

“And Sarah said, ‘God has made laughter for me'” (Genesis 21:6) as she declares the arrival of her long, long awaited son. His birth and his name remind us of laughter. Joy leaking out, laughter. Hmm…

“When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy” (Psalm 126:1-2). Filled with laughter on our way to Zion. Filled with laughter on the road to everything is restored. Filled with laughter on our way to the wedding party (the wedding of all weddings, that wedding). Hmm…

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh” (Luke 6:21). Jesus said that. “You shall laugh,” does that not almost bring you to tears (the hopeful, beautiful, longing kind of tears)? “You shall laugh,” hmm…

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). Is full tummy laughter not one of the best gifts? Hmm…

Oh, I do hope you are smiling now. For we shall laugh, and I do believe we shall laugh with Him. We will know, as we are known, the sound of His laughter.

I am not sure why we limit Jesus and His goodness. Why we package Him until we can understand Him, control Him, and explain Him. Is it not a glorious thing that He can be both righteous and full of laughter, comforting the broken-hearted and full of joy? Perfection that rolls with laughter? For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2). Perhaps He longs to laugh with us as much as we long to laugh with Him.

For transparency, I did not ask this question and then run to my Bible and search up laughter, not at first. First, the question rolled willy-nilly into my mind and a few hours later I found myself sitting in a cold, brick-walled room with a group of strangers. Strangers meeting for a book study on the attributes of Jesus which included gentle and lowly. There was no mention of Jesus, warm and infectious, in the class description. Not long after the large door was pushed into place, separating the occupants of the room from the hallway, the room was full of laughter. This was not small, polite laughter. It was warm infectious laughter. The kind that escalates all on its own. And I had my answer.

Jesus laughs.

“Laughter is carbonated holiness.”

Anne Lamott