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DAVID - Does God have a sense of humor?
JOEL - I am certain God does have a sense of humor; I am
reminded of it every time I look in the mirror :-)
It seems to me that if we are made in God’s image, and
we have a sense of humor, it follows that a good sense
of humor is part of whom God is.
Here are some scriptures that illustrate God's support
for humor:
Ecclesiastes 3:4 tells us that "there is a time to laugh."
Proverbs 17:22 says, "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine: "
Psalms 37:13: "The Lord laughs at him, for He sees that his day is coming."
Jesus Himself said, "Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh"(Luke 6:21).
In Numbers there's the story about God playing a joke on a man named Balaam.
Balamm kept hitting his donkey with a stick. Suddenly "the Lord opened the mouth of the ass" and the donkey
started talking to Balaam, asking why he keeps hitting him. That must have been quite a surprise to Balaam
and quite a commical scene that God created, using the
donkey to get his attention(Numbers 22:21-34).
In Genesis we read about God telling Sarah, a 90 year
old woman, that she was going to have a child. Her
comment was, "God has brought me laughter, and
everyone who hears about this will laugh with me"
(Genesis 21:6).
Humor comes in different forms. Sometimes Jesus showed his humor through exaggerations:
He said to some religious frauds, “You strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.”(Matt 23:24)
"If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? (Luke 11:11)
"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." (Matt 19:24)
Of course there are no scriptures that record Jesus
laughing at something or telling what we might
consider jokes; that isn't the purpose of the
scriptures. But we know that his mother was human and
therefore we expect that he would have experienced all
the joy, sorrow, laughter and humor like others would.
There is other evidence of God's humor. Besides us
funny-looking human beings, look at the animal world;
the hippopotamus or a whooping crane, a camel, a
giraffe, a monkey, the duck-billed platypus.
Henry Eyring, the father of President Henry B. Eyring
tells the following story:
"One time I was stuck most of a day in London and
couldn't face the thought of sightseeing, so I went to
the London Zoo. I was attracted by a crowd
watching the great apes. One fellow in particular was
getting a lot of attention as he sat close to the
front of the cage on a tree platform. As the zoo
visitors moved closer, he suddenly spewed them with
water he had in his mouth. Now, that was interesting!
I found a bench across the path—out of range—and
watched. The ape got down and went over to his water
trough to reload. He then went about the cage awhile
and finally repositioned himself on the platform.
He waited—patiently. Finally a new group of humanoids,
not aware of the danger, moved into range. Spray!
Splat! Bullseye! The fellow practically chortled out
loud as he made his trip to the trough. I spent the
entire afternoon enjoying his enjoyment." (Reflections
of a Scientist, p. 60)
The person who created that ape must indeed have a
sense of humor. The Lord has revealed to us that He
has created all these things "to please the eye and
to gladden the heart" (D&C 59:18).
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