Have You Heard God Laugh?

THE LAUGHTER OF GOD
Have you ever heard God laugh
     Right down to His toes?
Have you heard God laugh at demagogues
     Trying to get free of his control,
     Erase Him from memory,
     Teaching we all are here by chance?
Have you heard God laugh
     At the wicked plots against his people?
     At man’s foolish opinions,
     At his attempts to build utopias,
Have you ever heard God’s laugh
     That sends away fears,
     Speaks truth to unbelief,
     And dissolves worries of the future?
Have you ever heard God laugh
     At our efforts to be holy,
     At our hard work to make heaven,
     At our labor to gain approval?
When you hear God laugh
     Not derisively,
     But in joy of who we are and what we will see
     Then you will know why the joy of the Lord is
     Strength for the weak
     Energy for the weary
     Vision for the blind
     And healing for the sick of heart.
JM 2011
Deep in my soul I heard the laughter of God ringing in silvery cadences through the timbers of my being, breaking the human bonds and limitation as a strong yet gentle wind in the forest sweeping aside the strands of cobweb. The hard, fast knots that I had tried, slipped loose, and the snarls of beliefs broke free. The river of my human life, frozen by a thousand and one false ideas and teachings, broke joyously into expression and went bounding to the infinite sea of Life, to be lost and found at the same time. One dark cave of fear after another was illuminated by the light of this laughter and swampy areas of sick thoughts were dried up instantly. Parched sands of hopelessness and futile efforts were drenched by the living waters sucked in—absorbed instantly like a wave breaking on the sands. God laughing at me and my puny efforts to make things happen; to make heaven appear; to attain the son-ship. Not the laugh of derision, but of infinite compassion—a laughter so deep and sweet, so pure and glorious that everything in the nature of struggle gave way before it. (Walter Lanyon)