June 22, 2025
by Pastor Chuck SwindollScriptures: Proverbs 17:22
God’s sense of humor has intrigued me for years. What amazes me, however, is the number of people who don’t think He has one. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why they can’t see it. He made you and me, didn’t He?
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength. (Proverbs 17:22)
God’s sense of humor has intrigued me for years. What amazes me, however, is the number of people who don’t think He has one. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why they can’t see it. He made you and me, didn’t He? And what about all those funny-looking creatures that keep drawing us back to the zoo? If they aren’t proof of our Creator’s sense of humor, I don’t know what is.
Have you taken a close look at a wombat or a two-toed sloth, a giant anteater or a warthog lately? They’re hilarious! Every time I look at a camel I chuckle, recalling the words of some wag who said it reminded him of a horse put together by a committee. I honestly wonder if God didn’t laugh Himself as He dropped some of those creatures on our planet eons ago.
God’s humor, unfortunately, does not occupy any significant place in serious works of theology. I know; I’ve been checking them for years and been disappointed. In my four intensive years of study in an excellent graduate school of theology, I don’t recall one time that any prof addressed the subject of God’s sense of humor. And in all my reading since then—thirty years of searching—seldom have I found anything more than a lighthearted throwaway line on the subject.
That’s too bad. Because the impression we are left with is that our Lord is an all-too-serious Sovereign who has no room in His character for at least a few moments of fun. At best this frowning, uptight caricature suggests He is a heavenly representation of some venerable, earthly theologian—only older and wiser. Please!
Surely it is not blasphemous to think that laughter breaks out in heaven on special occasions. Why shouldn’t it? There is every reason to believe that would happen in His infinite, holy presence, where all is well and no evil abides. After all, God sees everything that transpires in this human comedy of errors . . . He understands it all.
We all look so much better and feel so much better when we laugh. I don’t know of a more contagious sound!