I’ll bet that God has a good, hearty laugh. One of those laughs that starts way down deep, near one’s diaphragm, and comes out like a joyful bellow.  The kind of laugh that fills a room and welcomes more laughter from others close at hand.

I guess some people might call a sentiment like that a little sacrilegious, since Scripture doesn’t necessarily speak a whole lot about “humor,” but I think it’s a reasonable enough speculation.

The concept of humor is universal, and it is almost synonymous to joy and happiness (both of which are sourced in God). And being able to laugh at oneself is antithetical to pride, so it seems to me that humility and a sense of humor are closely related.

Maybe “chuckling to oneself” didn’t quite make it into the official Fruit of The Spirit passage, but I’d say it was probably at least in the running when that text was being divinely given. When God created us in His image – with a mind, will, and emotions – it seems to me like a sense of humor was probably part of that original package set.

The Bible doesn’t explicitly tell us what God and Adam used to talk about when they would stroll through the garden together in those early days, but I wouldn’t bet against the notion that a knock-knock joke or two might have been exchanged between them.

I mean, come on, the human body comes equipped with a built-in whoopee cushion as a standard feature. That says a good deal about the disposition of our Designer, doesn’t it?

Anyway, I was thinking about this concept the other day. I had gone out into our muddy jungle, trekked around for hours on end, and come back home dehydrated and dirty, with my calves covered with around 20 chigger bites. Several of these later got infected. Are you seeing the humor yet?

Yeah, neither was I. But then, as I was painfully scrubbing the pus out of one of my sores with a scouring pad, on our front porch, an unsolicited Bible verse popped into my head:

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!”*

I couldn’t help but smile at the irony, as I mumbled my response back to God, “That may be the case for mountain-based messengers, but it certainly isn’t true of us swamp-dwelling ones.”

And I like to think that God shared in the laugh at His little joke.

*The weird photo at the top is one that I took after a village friend killed a cassowary in the bush. I thought it was kind of funny, and somewhat related, so I added it.

**Isaiah 52:7