Martin Luther – You
have as much laughter as you have faith.
We recently got a new kitten. He’s an orange tabby with huge
eyes.
We call him Itty Bitty Orange Kitty or Itty Bitty for short.
He’s been a bit of a whirlwind. We hadn’t planned on getting a kitten in
November, but one of my sons knew a guy who had a kitten who needed a good
home, and we needed a barn cat.
So, one afternoon around the dinner table, it was decided we
would be blessed with a cat. The following Monday, I received a call from my
son letting me know he was on his way with the kitten. Once he got here, I realized
I was totally unprepared for the cat. No toys, no food, and most important, no
litter box.
Now, Itty-bitty is a great house cat. However, we don’t need
a house cat; we need a barn cat. So, Itty-Bitty is slowly becoming an outside
cat with inside privileges.
What has surprised me most about our new addition to our
family is my reaction to him. I fell in love with the silly thing. Through all
his antics and snuggles and cries for attention, he brought me joy. He filled
my heart with mirth and happiness.
He made me laugh.
Crazy cat!
I found myself playing with him, in the middle of the
afternoon, like I had nothing better to do then to entertain a ten-pound
purring machine.
Then the other day as I was coming out of one of the
bedrooms, Itty Bitty was sitting outside the door ready to shoot through into
the room. I stuck my foot out to stop him. He bowed up, arched his back, and
jumped sideways, all at the same time. It was one of the funniest things I had
ever seen.
I laughed until I cried. Stupid cat!
But in that moment, I realized something; laughter is a
grace -filled blessing from God.
Think what life would be like if we could not laugh … at
ourselves, with our friends, or at our beloved animals.
There is a reason Funniest Home Videos was so popular for so
long.
Laughter is good for
the soul.
In Genesis, Sarai laughed when she heard God intended to
give her a child at ninety. But she laughed even more when it came to pass, and
she held the child in her arms that had ached for so many years to hold a baby.
She laughed and rejoiced at the hearts desire God had fulfilled for her. She
said, “God has brought me laughter.”
Genesis 21:6 (NLT).
When God brings laughter into your life, enjoy it. If he
fulfills a dream or a desire, rejoice. If he gives you friends to share a good
giggle with, indulge. If he gives you a crazy cat that makes weird faces, laugh
out loud. It will do you good.
A joyful heart is good medicine. Proverbs 17:22 ESV.
Finding God's grace,
Bonita Y. McCoy