Does God have a sense of humour? I believe so. We are, after all, made in God’s image and we certainly have a sense of humour!
Jesus may well have been known as the ‘Man of Sorrows’, but he was also the one who told His disciples “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11) I can’t imagine that someone who was always woeful and gloomy (Eeyore-like in personality) could have made that statement and not been ridiculed for it! The one who nicknamed James and John ‘sons of Thunder’ clearly had a twinkle in His eyes at times!
Proverbs 17:22 says that “a cheerful heart is good medicine” and for years, Reader’s Digest produced a jokes’ section entitled ‘Laughter The Best Medicine’ which endeavoured to lighten the atmosphere through jokes.
Good friends tend to be those who know us best and accept us as we are; they also tend to be those with whom we can laugh most easily. Sometimes there is a fair amount of teasing in the jokes. Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin, both worship leaders who are not especially tall, endlessly tease each other about their height. Their amicable rivalry often takes the form of hilarious presents on this theme: when Passion City Church moved to its new building, Chris Tomlin showed a picture of a doll’s house seat named in honour of Matt Redman; Matt Redman has just presented Chris Tomlin with a small child’s T-shirt in honour of the 2012 Olympics!
Some time ago, I wrote a blog post entitled ‘Musings on Fish’ Sadly, our fish died shortly after that and we were left, for the first time in years, with no fish and no real idea what had caused their deaths. The tank, as a result, stands empty. Mark has been teasing us about this for weeks, threatening to buy us a variety of pets to fill it. Then, last week, it was Garry’s birthday and the threat turned into reality.
Meet Igor the Iguana:
I have a feeling you will be seeing more of Igor in weeks to come. Rather than residing in the fish tank (as Mark had anticipated), he spent last week on the tank of Garry’s motor bike. He has been to church and joined in the music practice. I suspect he will be travelling much further afield too!
There is great joy in silliness at times. We can take ourselves far too seriously and often need to learn to laugh at ourselves and with others. Such jokes may not count as the kind of joy Jesus promised us, but I am sure that smiling and laughter are good for us!