On your feet now—applaud God! Bring a gift of laughter,
      sing yourselves into his presence.
      (Psalm 100:1-2, MSG)

Laughter is indeed a gift from God. Life without laughter would be dull, boring, and hard. Life with full of love and laughter is as good as it gets at this side of heaven. I love people who can laugh in the middle of hardships. Martin Luther has said “You have as much laughter as you have faith.”I guess that’s true. We can concentrate on our troubles or we can lift our gaze up to God. When we know that our worth comes from God who loves us we are free to live in God’s grace and peace and laugh in the middle of hardships. 

Martin Luther has also said that “It is pleasing to God whenever thou rejoicest or laughest from the bottom of thy heart.” I just love to think that our God loves laughing because I tend to laugh loudly. That’s why it’s a relief to know that Martin Luther went even this far declairing “If you are not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don’t want to go there.” I imagine heaven is a place of laughter, sunshine, peace, praise and adoration. I imagine heaven is the eternal presence of God and laughter is a glimpse of that here on earth.

Gracious God,
Thank you for giving us the gift of laughter.
Show us how to use this gift to ease our neighbors’ burdens.
Help us to bring more laughter into each other’s lives.
Give us more faith, more laughter, more compassion.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: What does bring laughter into your life?

You can find more posts on laughter at One Word at a Time: Laughter Blog Carnival.
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Photo courtesy of Matt Gruber