I like to laugh with God. If you don’t think God is funny, I would like to point out the fact that He created humor. We’re not above Him on that. We are not cooler than Him, either. He’s way smarter, which makes Him way more clever, which makes Him way more funny than we could ever be. So a lot of the time, my own prayers to Him are just me making fun of myself and hoping He is getting a kick out of it.

I also think sometimes He points out specific things to all of us (I know He does for me) just to make us laugh, but we don’t always give Him the credit for it. Like the other night, I saw the ugliest hyena. Yes, they are all ugly, but this one looked like the fat one from The Lion King, and it had no butt. It’s back just went straight down to its legs, and he was so dumb, just walking around at night in the middle of the road. I loved it. God knows I love that stuff, too, so I know He put it there in that moment for me to laugh at.

Then there are moments with other people that could only have come from a Father who wants to see His children loving on each other and laughing together. A couple of weeks ago, CURE Ethiopia, along with another hospital here in Addis, Black Lion, performed a major operation, the first of its kind in this country. A 17-year-old girl came to our facility searching for hope to be “normal.” She was born with and has been carrying a parasitic twin, which is sort of like a conjoined twin, except it’s not fully developed, so there is really only one child. It was pretty bizarre, unlike anything any of us have seen. When she first arrived here, her entire demeanor was somber, but after her very successful surgery, she is now a new person. She fills the whole room with her smile. Her thankfulness is evident in the looks she gives to every staff member here at CURE. Her heart is displayed every time she offers me a seat when I walk in the room and how she greets me with hugs and kisses.  My favorite thing about her, though, are these looks we give each other when we both think something is funny but we can’t communicate it because I speak no Oromifa and she speaks no English. Her mother visited the hospital after the operation was complete, and after we did an interview with both of them, the mother was just all over me. She was talking a mile a minute in a language I don’t understand three words of and would not let go of me, and I’m weird about being touched by strangers. I don’t love it.  I was holding back laughter when I caught Workitu’s (that’s her name, by the way) eyes, and we both busted into laughter. Then we watched “Ethiopian Idol” (oh yes, that exists), and there is no such thing as a language barrier when you’re listening to a terrible singer belt it out on television. We would do a thumbs up or down after each performance, but we usually didn’t need to because the fact that we were cracking up during it was already an indication of how we felt.

There are so many circumstances out here that you just have to laugh at so that the days are more enjoyable. But I just want to acknowledge that they are coming from the One that enjoys making us, hearing us, and loves for us to laugh, because He is the funniest.

Originally posted at: http://bridigiacomo.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/why-we-laugh/.