Laughter's an Ad for Heaven

 

Therefore you now have sorrow;

but I will see you again

and your heart will rejoice,

and your joy no one will take from you.

                                                                                                 — John 16:22

 

            Here's a poem I wrote about one of my dad's best friends. He passed away years ago, but I can still hear his adorable, distinctive laugh. It was one of those funny kinds of laughter that make YOU laugh, just hearing it.

I can remember laying awake as a teenager one night, up in my room, when he was over at our house with some other friends, laughing and talking in the living room. His helpless chortles rose above all others. I wasn't annoyed at all that he kept me awake; I found his natural happiness very endearing and encouraging. It gave me a taste of adult life that made it seem like so much fun, to sit up and just laugh and talk with good friends like that.

Now that my dad has passed away, too, I have no doubt the two of them are up there in heaven, laughing it up together. I just have this thing about laughter; I see it as "an ad for heaven." He was a great "sales rep" for the Lord. See if you can hear him, too:

 

                        People got to giggling

                        About this fellow's laugh

                        'Cause it bubbled and it gurgled

                        Loud and funny. Psychopath!

 

                        My parents had him over

                        A million times or two.

                        And when I was a little girl,

                        He had me giggling, too.

 

                        What made this guy so silly?

                        Was it eating macaroni?

                        Nope. He was just a happy guy

                        And not one bone was phony.

 

                                                But then he came down very, very ill.

                                                And doctors said they're sorry, there's no pill.

                                                And everybody's frowns just hit the floor.

                                                They don't think they'll be laughing any more.

 

                        Oh, yeah?

 

                        Spirit-u-al certainty

                        Number 7-27

                        Says laughter is a gift from God,

                        A joyous ad for heaven.

 

                        Laughter comes from joy, you know,

                        And joy comes from the Spirit.

                        Some folks, they get a double dose

                        Of God's laughter. You can hear it.

 

                        I heard Godly joy in all his goofy gasps,

                        Saw it in his sparkling eyes.

                        Salvation and eternal life

                        Are his. That's no surprise.

 

                        So though this grief is hard for us,

                        Though pain is genuine,

                        The Bible says joy can't be lost,

                        And we'll see him again.

 

                        So when we get to heaven,

                        It won't be any riddle

                        If all the saints are laughing loud . . .

 

                                                And he's right there in the middle. †