What generates laughter in your family or circle of friends? Some circumstances may be more conducive to laughter than others, but I am convinced that an authentic belly laugh can't be planned, faked or choreographed.
I have at least a couple of friends with whom laughter is almost guaranteed. I'm talking about the kind that brings tears to your eyes and leaves you taking in breaths of relief. Invariably, after a laughing session we almost always sigh and say, "Thanks, I needed that!!!!!"
Aaaah yes, genuine laughter is an expression of surprise, a pop! of the unexpected, and often unspeakable delight.
I think of Abraham... 100 years old... being told by God that his geriatric wife would bear a child. His response was to "fall down on his face and laugh". ( I'm not sure that would be my response to that news even now at 58+ years, let alone close to 100! )
This morning as I read the story again, I heard it telling me more about God than about Abraham or Sarah. Our God is one who looks at what we see as logical and predictable and says: "Behold...look what I can do!" And in that moment the possible and miraculous breaks into what previously seemed to be set in the stone of impossibility and improbability.
Most of us have situations in our lives that seem serious... overshadowing our capacity for joy or delight. What would it look like if God's creative power intersected those circumstances and overturned them with God's promise of hope and limitless, timeless new life?
How about a good belly laugh?
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