The Reflectionary

“Does God have a sense of humour?”  A serious question from someone I know who is not noted for appreciating jokes.  Perhaps if I used better jokes???

I believe the answer to his question is a resounding yes. The photos I have chosen for this post feature the tongue of a giraffe, and a close-up portrait of the “best” side of an ostrich.

Both of these amazing creatures are wonderfully adapted to their own environments… almost as if they’d been created on purpose…

But if you don’t crack a smile when you see them, the question about who has a sense of humour has an obvious answer!

Being in lock down has been a very strange time.  I’m used to being involved in church and community affairs, and wanted to volunteer to help during the crisis. I’m not allowed to leave the house much because my health means I am “at risk” of grave illness if I catch Covid-19.

So I am posting jokes on Facebook, writing prayer prompts, and using my photos to reflect on life, the virus and where God is in all this.

If God doesn’t have a sense of humour, why do human beings like to laugh?  If we are made “in the likeness” of God, we have some of the attributes of Him. God laughs!

Humour is about the incongruous, the unexpected, the quirky- and timing.

One of the things that convinces me that God loves a chuckle is those odd “co-incidences” in life.  Like this one:

The other evening, I was putting the finishing touches to a piece about the importance of looking carefully at stuff to reveal what God might be saying.

Just as I was building up speed, both fingers typing furiously, and was about to write something deeply profound that might change the life of a reader… one lens fell out of my glasses. No warning. 20/20 vision to utter confusion in a split second.

Deep within, I felt that at that moment God was smiling happily… and I sensed He was saying nicely: “Get over yourself. Do your best, and leave the big stuff to Me.”

It could have been co-incidence, lucky/unlucky timing. Or not.  You can decide. As I put the lens back in the frame, and spent several inconvenient minutes with a very small screwdriver and a micro sized screw, and with no usable spectacles, I thought again about those profound words I had been about to type.  And changed them- for better words with a bit more humility.  All’s well that ends well.  Sometimes a little humour unlocks hearts better than big words.

Jesus told funny stories. Expert scholars say our English Bible translations don’t always catch the humour His hearers would have picked up on straight away. But how can you squeeze a camel (another funny shape!) through the eye of a needle? You had to be there, I suppose. Illustrating the obviously impossible with an apt turn of phrase cracks us up.

I hope you find a smile and a chuckle today.  If you know any good ones, I collect jokes… May God bless you in the laughter, and may you pass it on!

If you’re wondering about the title, ‘Aving a Giraffe is Cockney rhyming slang for “having a laugh.”  I hope you do. I’m glad God does too.