Laughter
Soul, when you get to heaven, I think you’ll soon sense a chuckle in your chest, a warm reminder of the things that used to make you laugh on the Old Earth. Not the humor built on disdain, fear, self-consciousness, or anxiety. You laughed in these shallow, evaporating puddles, but there was no joy, no health, no love.
The real things that birthed sparkles in your eyes were the masterful turn of phrase, the perfectly-time raised eyebrow, the self-directed winking irony, the random smell or word or sound that pointed to a healed embarrassment – even better when you were with someone who shared the memory. You laughed at pratfalls, absurdities, exaggerated hipness, huge sunglasses, floppy shoes, absolutely nothing when you just had the giggles with close souls.
Though you don’t remember it, you laughed like a baby when you were…well…a baby. So many things were surprising and you knew so few social parameters and fears, that the slightest novelty – a dad’s flapping lips, a ripping piece of paper, a falling leaf – led you to erupt in unrestrained contortions of lung and face. Again and again and again and again.
Though infrequent, you also laughed at the sheer ecstasy of life – arms raised, legs spread, face up, on top of a mountain or next to the ocean or in the middle of an endless field or desert, leaning into the near gale pressing in waves against every part of your body, gulping in the rarified air; or dancing and spinning around and around and around, or running and yelling accolades to God – “You are soooo good!!!! You’ve made such beauty!!!”
Perhaps even rarer were the nights of loss, the endless days of pain or separation, in which you could stand, look up and feel an invisible Rightness growing and flowing from deep within your body-mind-soul, out your mouth as laughter into the miasm of despair and evil surrounding you. “I can't get out of this mess! But God, you are the Way Maker. This will end. You are king and I laugh at Satan’s weakness, his failure, his puniness. Even now, in this pit, you give me glimpse enough of your eternity, my home, that I exult.”
These moments, each of the healthy, restoring laughs, were rare. But in the New Earth, every second will be ripe for a smile, a chuckle, a guffaw. An infinity of pleasurable novelties, no restraining fears, barrierless relationships with experiences producing inside jokes, reveling in painless bodies. And best of all, your Father’s love blowing, swirling, eddying around and through you.
Soul – get ready to laugh forever.
The real things that birthed sparkles in your eyes were the masterful turn of phrase, the perfectly-time raised eyebrow, the self-directed winking irony, the random smell or word or sound that pointed to a healed embarrassment – even better when you were with someone who shared the memory. You laughed at pratfalls, absurdities, exaggerated hipness, huge sunglasses, floppy shoes, absolutely nothing when you just had the giggles with close souls.
Though you don’t remember it, you laughed like a baby when you were…well…a baby. So many things were surprising and you knew so few social parameters and fears, that the slightest novelty – a dad’s flapping lips, a ripping piece of paper, a falling leaf – led you to erupt in unrestrained contortions of lung and face. Again and again and again and again.
Though infrequent, you also laughed at the sheer ecstasy of life – arms raised, legs spread, face up, on top of a mountain or next to the ocean or in the middle of an endless field or desert, leaning into the near gale pressing in waves against every part of your body, gulping in the rarified air; or dancing and spinning around and around and around, or running and yelling accolades to God – “You are soooo good!!!! You’ve made such beauty!!!”
Perhaps even rarer were the nights of loss, the endless days of pain or separation, in which you could stand, look up and feel an invisible Rightness growing and flowing from deep within your body-mind-soul, out your mouth as laughter into the miasm of despair and evil surrounding you. “I can't get out of this mess! But God, you are the Way Maker. This will end. You are king and I laugh at Satan’s weakness, his failure, his puniness. Even now, in this pit, you give me glimpse enough of your eternity, my home, that I exult.”
These moments, each of the healthy, restoring laughs, were rare. But in the New Earth, every second will be ripe for a smile, a chuckle, a guffaw. An infinity of pleasurable novelties, no restraining fears, barrierless relationships with experiences producing inside jokes, reveling in painless bodies. And best of all, your Father’s love blowing, swirling, eddying around and through you.
Soul – get ready to laugh forever.