Sense of humor

I appreciate many of the comments in the Breakpoint commentary written by Charles Colson. My kids – best offspring any parent could hope for – had to endure me often reading Colson’s commentary at suppertimes. (I felt I really needed to expose them to a different worldview than the one they lived in daily at school!) In the Dec 4, 2008 Breakpoint (see http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=10652),Colson writes about humor in times of crisis:

“Elton Trueblood, in his 1964 book The Humor of Christ, paints a picture of Christ as a deft comedian—a master at wordplay.

Trueblood writes: “Anyone who reads the Synoptic Gospels . . . might be expected to see that Christ laughed, and that He expected others to laugh.” He frequently used humor and wit to make His point, as He did when He mentioned a camel going through the eye of a needle. When He said that the Pharisees strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, He was making a good pun because the Aramaic words for camel and gnat are almost identical.

If anyone had cause for being a bit down, it was Jesus. His was no easy life, facing satanic opposition and human scorn. Yet Jesus could laugh. Why, because He knew that His sufferings could not compare with the joy that awaited Him. And the same should be true for all of us.

Trueblood says, ‘The Christian is [merry], not because he is blind to injustice and suffering, but because he is convinced that these, in the light of the divine sovereignty, are never ultimate.’”

Isn’t it fun to think of Jesus as having a keen sense of humor?

And I find it so wonderful to realize that we too can embrace humor: when we know that our 'ultimate' is good.