Laughter
In my meditation this morning I read the passage from Luke where Jesus says, “Let the little children come to me, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Then I read in Brennan Manning’s book, The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus, these words. “Blessed are you who laugh. . . . But blessed are you only if you can laugh at yourselves, if you don’t take yourselves too seriously, if human living doesn’t revolve around you and your needs.” The two passages read in such close proximity made me think of the laughter of children–how natural it comes and how infectious it is.
When I was in Morocco I had children following me wherever I went (not because of my magnetic personality, I promise). They followed me because I was the guy with the camera. They had never seen a digital camera before and begged me to take their picture so they could see their image on the screen. When they saw their picture, they laughed out loud or giggled in delight. All the poverty and problems of life were abandoned for those moments of playfulness. Similarly, my wife was going through pictures of our own children the other night. I heard her laugh out loud several times at the joyous faces or absurd costumes our children wore when they were little (okay, sometimes she was laughing at pictures of me).
There is something about the joy of a child that resonates with our soul. So why is it we as adults have so little laughter about our own lives? Why is it we can’t find joy in the moments of opportunity and delight that God gives us every day. Yes, much of life is serious. Each of us carry a weight of responsibility and sorrow. We deal daily with concerns that affect our present and our future. But in the midst of all that Jesus says, “Let the little children come to me, for the kingdom of God belongs to these.” I’m going to look for some things to laugh out loud about today–and it will probably be at me. (By the way, this is a picture of me taken by a Moroccan child with my camera.) Laugh out loud if you want.
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