What makes God laugh?

The column is changing slightly in that while I’ll still be writing on a wide range of themes from Scripture, I will also examine a number of secular quotations from a Christian worldview.

 
Some of you may know my little book, So They Say that discusses various quotations from secular literature. I have always prized a good quotation because it summarizes a much larger idea in a few memorable words. I was saving quotations for volume #2 of my book, but I’ve decided to put them here on my website, Shout4Joy.net. Here’s the first; I admit it’s rather lighthearted, but I believe true:
        “If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans!”
       The longer I live as a Christian the more convinced I am that God is in control of every step in my life. Before I was convinced of this, I would rather regularly tell the Almighty what I had planned for My life. More often than not he would break out in laughter. Friendly laughter to be sure, but nevertheless, laughter.  God is not a miserable old grouch so how could he have ever managed to keep a smile off his face when I told him what I was planning. One thing is for sure and that is that he is willing to let us be ridiculous.
       First of all, is it true that God can laugh? The Old Testament uses the word several times but it is never God who is doing the laughing. In the New Testament, gelao (“to laugh”) occurs twice, but not in connection with God. Does that mean he didn’t laugh? No, it means that there is no place in scripture that records him laughing. So today’s little quotation simply assumes that God can, and does, laugh, and I’m going to agree with that assumption. It would be hard to believe that from time to time the Creator of all there is doesn’t at least smile!
       One thing I’ve discovered about the bigger “decisions” of life is that if you have to kick the door open, you shouldn’t go through it. Some of our plans are certainly worthy of a good   friendly laugh from the One who oversees all of life like a good and wise father. I’ve always been grateful for his promise that “if on some point you think differently (that is, deviate from the path toward spiritual maturity) God will make it clear to you” (Philippians 3:15). It’s hard to go wrong if we stay in touch with Him – and we now know, as the quote suggests, that some of our plans simply have to make him laugh. Let’s laugh along with him.