Where does laughter come from?
About a week ago, my roommate and I asked this question around a campfire together, probably because we find ourselves laughing around each other more than anything else we do. It’s such a funny thing, no pun intended. Certain funny phrases or happenings or reactions will just hit us out of the blue and what is our reaction? To jiggle our entire frame in a seizure of sorts, forcing the air in and out faster than we were a moment ago. A snort is even let go for some.
Why is this the case? Why is that our first reaction?
And let’s be real. We don’t control our laughter; it controls us.
It overtakes us. It often overtakes multiple people at once.
Laughter is the sweetest captor a captive could know.
A quick Wikipedia search tells me that “laughter is used as a signal for being a part of a group – it signals acceptance and positive interactions with others,” focusing solely on the fact that it has to do with relationships. Laughter is relational. You feel like you know people when you have really laughed with them. You don’t laugh near as hard when you are by yourself. Laughter requires context and wit, accident and timeliness.
Monkeys also laugh. I think this is hilarious.
Laughter is primitive. It is simple. It is uniting. It is universal. It breaks down barriers of awkwardness and newness. It is unpredictable. It is always welcome.
But where does it come from?
Both in our chest and in our world. Think about it. When you laugh, it doesn’t come from your throat, it doesn’t come from your heart, it doesn’t come from your toes, or your mind. It uses all of you. It’s in your breath. It’s in your mind. It’s in your movement. It’s where you are in the world. It’s who you’re with. It’s consuming.
Laughter is something that we are all a fan of and it works it’s magic on us all.
Laughter is medicine. Laughter is contentedness. Laughter is distraction. Laughter is wit. Laughter is awareness. Laughter is contagious.
Laughter is one of the signatures of the Maker in my mind. He shows us how easily persuaded we are through it. Laughter contains an image both of influence and pleasantness. We are willingly and lovingly overpowered by it. Just like it is with Him. His requirement to be worshipped is only there alongside His knowledge of how delightful it is to worship Him. We obey with our yokes strapped on tightly because we know that they are light.
We will always be worshipping something. Some even worship humor and constantly finding something to laugh at. God shows us that all other yokes are heavy and His is light.
The Israelites learned a similar lesson when they demanded to the prophet Samuel that they have a king like the other nations. As the Israelites soon found out, a real king is a burden, as he would require their sons and their livelihood. But God as King is a delight, for His requirements are returned in the form of His company and fellowship and always His provision.
I say all this to say: laugh. Be consumed with it. Welcome it. Look a little longer at it and know the one who made it. Laughter was His idea and it’ll never be enough in itself, thank God.
