Holy Humor

I heard a speaker recently talk about God’s sense of humor. He made the comment that God is the most funny and joy-filled being there ever was. I agreed with him, but somehow that comment struck me as odd. Over the last several weeks I have pondered why that statement struck me so profoundly. Then a friend of mine wrote a blog called When God Laughs. I practically laughed out loud when I saw the title, because it was exactly what I had been mulling over in my head the last few weeks. I wondered if God was trying to teach me something about Himself. Well, now He had my attention.

I guess I don’t often think of God as being funny, or even laughing, or really even being slightly amused. In fact, most of the time my mental picture of God is pretty straight-faced and stern. My mental picture of Jesus is practically the same. I picture Jesus teaching and preaching in various places, but I never picture him laughing his head off. I wonder why. When I think of funny, joy-filled people, there are certain ones that come to mind right away. My husband’s friend Rod is a very funny guy. He makes me laugh all the time. My daughter, Rachel, says some of the funniest things, and she makes me laugh daily. But Jesus? I never thought of Jesus as having a sense of humor. But didn’t God create humor? He created us with a sense of humor and said we are made in His image. Didn’t Jesus say things like, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11)?

You know what I think? I think God likes to have fun. I think he likes to laugh and play with His children, and it is a shame that we have lost sight of this. I would venture to say that the majority of people don’t ever think of God as laughing or having fun. Maybe that’s why the speaker’s comment caught me so off guard, because I was among that majority. I heard someone say once that “God is in a good mood”, but I think most of us believe that God is in a perpetual bad mood!

My friend wrote in her blog that she so enjoyed hearing her girls laughing hysterically in the other room and pictured Jesus sitting there laughing right along with them. That made me think about us as God’s children. Just like as parents we love to hear our children having a good belly laugh, I believe that God loves to hear our laughter. I think it makes His great big heart swell up with joy. And I think He is right there laughing alongside us.