Genesis 21:1-7 On Laughter
And the Lord said to Sarah, "... Oh yes, you did laugh" (Genesis 18:15).
When we think about life with God we typically don't think laughter. We think of words like surrender, sacrifice, worship, grace, etc... All these words are applicable, and suitably describe elements of the with-God life. But the way we talk about grace, about, surrender, about worship, etc, are too often dirge-like in their expression.
The picture of the morose saint, holy but unhappy, dominates our thinking and seeps into our narratives of life with God. No wonder most Christian's talk of going to heaven when they die, while accepting mediocrity/hell on earth now. They have accepted laughter in the hereafter, if you will.
The bible speaks of a different reality. In the story of Abraham and Sarah we see laughter throughout the entire narrative. When God shares with Abraham and Sarah that she would have a child, they laugh (Genesis 17:17; 18:12). Sarah's laugh was respectable, it was "to herself." Abraham was different, he lacks couth and decorum, for he "falls on his face with laughter."
As one interacts with God they will learn God's plan for their life. They will learn that God's plans are wholly absurd, just plain ridiculous, and putting hearing it, they will laugh.
The reason they/we laugh is because we are conditioned to deal with possibilities that lie within our realm of control. But whenever a proposal or a promise is made that seems impossible to us, our inclination is to laugh. We laugh, not of faith, but of incredulity.
But God's faithfulness to his word is not dependent upon our approval. We need not think it possible for it to become so. Case in point, Sarah and Abraham, the ones who thought God's promise was ridiculous, soon had another reason to laugh. First they laughed at what God said, but now, as they cradle a newborn baby, they're laughing because of what God did. First it was incredulous laughter, but it became laughter that emerges from deep wells of joy.
In life with God there is laughter on both ends. The invitation we receive is to get in on the joke that God intends to make something out of our lives that is absurdly beautiful. Or, as the apostle Paul said, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Cor. 2:9).Therefore, if you thought the promise from God was funny, just wait until you experience the reality.