Are You a Laugh-er?

Holy Land Picture of the Day

Mount of Olives Today's picture is of the Mount of Olives. It is mentioned several times in the Bible, including Luke 19: 37-38; "As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting: "BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"   “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward kin heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you”. (Matt. 5:12) Hey Gang:  Do you think Jesus laughed?  We know he cried when He heard his good friend Lazarus had died and he wept over Jerusalem, , but I find  no place where it says, Jesus, threw back His head and laughed from the depth of his diaphragm. I like people who can laugh.  We just completed our tenure at Voice of Martyrs where we were part of a team that worked in the mail room preparing the monthly mailings.  And we were truly blessed to work with some tremendous warriors who pay no attention to the time clock but are committed to get the message out to those who need to know about the fantastic work this ministry does.  Daren, my team leader, was a laugh-er.  The rest of the team were smil…errrrs  but Daren was a true-blue belly laugh-er.  When he laughed, he laughed from the tips of his toes and that is a true blessing for grumps like me.  In my tenure as a believer, I have seen hundreds of pictures of Jesus and I only recall ever seeing one where He is laughing.      It has always amazed me to see the reaction some people have to the idea that Jesus would laugh. If you were to put a picture of a laughing Jesus on the screen in most sanctuaries ,you would find neigh- sayers who would be horrified, shocked and offended that you would suggest such a thing. Some would even go so far as to accuse you of heresy.  Their belief, "Jesus was too holy to act like that."   But do the Scriptures not say that Jesus was both fully God and fully human. Doesn't that mean he would have done the things all people do? Don't you think he had dirty diapers when he was a baby?" Did Jesus laugh?  You can bet your sweet bippy that Jesus laughed. Every normal person laughs. To suggest that Jesus never laughed implies that he suffered from deep psychological problems. And what evidence is offered to support this idea? Simply this: The Gospels never say, "Jesus laughed."   Having worked with children for more than forty years, I can attest to you that children do not gravitate  too, or seek out grumps.  Matthew emphasized this point when he rebuked  the disciples for not allowing the children to come to Jesus (Matt. 19:14).  He even proclaimed that “the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”  Children loved Him. Soooo, good buddies and ladies, when you are deep into the duties of the day, don’t forget to take a moment or two and smell the posies and do a Daren belly- laugh.  Doctors would tell you to laugh is to improve one’s health.  Blessings, Gramps