The Gift of Laughter

Laughter has always been an important part of my life.  I can still hear my Dad's laugh, a deep one that came straight from the soles of his feet.  My Mother was a very short lady who laughed all over her body.  Our family spent many hours together laughing and just enjoying life.  I had many friends who never heard laughter in their homes and I often felt sorry for them.  A young cousin was visiting from Oregon once and asked why our family laughed so much.  Rather than laughter being the norm in his home, it was a rarity.  I often wondered how we could come from the same bloodlines and have such different homes.  When we were married and started having children, I made it a point to enjoy laughter with my babies.  There were times when I wanted to scream (and I am certain I did on numerous occasions) but found the best answer was laughter.  I have laughed so hard at times that I would cry.  My face felt as if it would break and my sides were splitting in pain.  

There were many, many times when LH and EAH were growing up that laughter could be heard coming out of the house....times when so many of their friends were over and talk and laughter were freely flowing.  I have longed for those moments so many times since our children graduated from high school....just to hear side-splitting laughter coming from those happy faces.  Well, we experienced that once again last night.  We had the honor and privilege of having the College/Career Dept. from our church over for their Christmas fellowship.  Twenty-one young people and teachers joined us for a time of food and fun.  I think I have mentioned in past posts that my husband is a really early-to-bed person.  As usual, he went to bed around 9:00 p.m. last night.  He has sleep apnea and requires a C-pap machine to help him breathe properly at night.  About 30 minutes after he went to bed (and I thought he was asleep), the fun really began with the party going on in the other rooms of the house.  You see, there was a "white elephant" gift exchange which caused uproarious laughter from everyone.  All of a sudden, Gary says, with the machine still on, "That sounds so good!".  At that point, I started laughing...he "rose from the dead" to make that statement and all that laughter sounded so good.  Our gift last night (and it was not a "white elephant" one) was the longed for laughter from young voices once again raising the roof at our home!

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of laughter and for all those young people.  Our Christmas is already a wonderful one!