| Laughter and crying are sisters. They live together even if at odds. They both have the same expression in terms of noise and facial expression; however, in laughter, the mouth is curved upward and is sometimes accompanied by tears; albeit, tears of joy. Crying involves the mouth turned downward and is almost always accompanied by tears - but this time, tears expressing sorrow, pain, anguish, anger, etc. When we first experience death, grief, we feel that we will never again be able to laugh, to enjoy, to be happy. And for a time, that is a true situation. But after the ever so slow passage of days and weeks and months, we are quite surprised to find ourselves laughing at some very strange things. But we are laughing. I think even God must have laughed quite a lot when he created all the creatures that inhabit His earth. Look at the camel, for instance. It is an ungainly, foul smelling animal that spits to express its opinion. Some say that the camel is a horse designed by committee! The elephant is another example of God's wit and humor design. Why in the world would any animal need with a nose that is long enough to reach from it's face to the ground! Perhaps the funniest trick God played on the animal world is the duck-billed Platypus. This is a mammal because it is warm-blooded, but beyond that fact, it is an absolute caricature! It has a bill like a duck, it lays eggs like a duck, it has a pouch like an opossum, it feeds on shrimp and other creatures only in cold, swift running streams only in New Zealand, it burrows up to 40 feet back into river banks to nest like an otter, it is totally nocturnal like an owl, it has poisonous spines on the inside of it's hind legs, it is blind and hunts by emitting electrical impulses from its nose through its whiskers, and is fur-bearing like a sable. If that isn't a funny creation, we don't have one! Come to think about it, look at the way human beings are designed. I don't think we need to go into the way our bodies are engineered, but we were not designed for endurance, speed, stealth, camouflage, or adaptability to our environment as most animal species are. God's work with us is his greatest creation. Along with that large brain, he gave us uniquely the means to express the widest range of emotions of all. Some say that animals have just as specific a language as we, and that they communicate through that language. However, God gave us the widest range of verbal communications of any other of His beings, including our sense of humor. That sense of humor is one of His ways to help us deal with things He unexpectedly brings our way and to get past them. Laughing is as much a healing activity as is crying. It is said that laughing only takes about 19 muscles to accomplish, while frowning and crying take over 190 separate muscle actions. This verifies the fact that grieving is work as is evident in the muscular involvement it takes. The converse, laughing, is so easy to do that we really need to concentrate on doing it a lot more. There is an appropriate time for each expression of a particular emotion, but laughing as well as crying are both God-given and meant to be used as He intended. You can't have one without the other, they are very close sisters. |
| Next to Prayer, Laughter is the Best Medicine! © Betty Sue Eaton |
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