Healing will come; until then, there's laughter

Saturday, July 12, 2008

It has long bothered me that the Bible never tells us that Jesus laughed. It tells us he cried once (John 11:35) at news of the death of his friend Lazarus. But no reference to laughter. In my office is a portrait from a not-for-profit group called the Fellowship of Merry Christians. The portrait's title is "Laughing Jesus by the Seashore." The expression on his face is that of a man who just heard a rib-tickling story or perhaps an anecdote that called for a burst of chuckling. But there's not a single reference in any part of the New Testament that Jesus found anything funny.

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