Thursday, February 16, 2006

"Love is the flower you've got to let grow."
--John Lennon

How does God use you to "grow" His love?
Well, it sounds silly, but the first thing I thought of (and I'm just going to go with it) is laughter. Which is like audible hospitality. Because my favorite thing is having people over, cooking for them, and taking care of them. But laughing is like the threshold to it all. When you laugh with another(and all of the laughter I'm writing about is with-laughter, not laugh-at laughter, which can be an evil, harmful thing...really, a different beast altogether), you invite them in. Everything is warmer and kinder. More open.
I love laughing. I've been told that my laughter is "explosive," which to me sounds horrible, but I do enjoy that each person has a different laugh, like fingerprints or snowflakes. Every laugh is singular. Some people have such a good laugh that it sounds like it just feels good to make that sort of sound. Laughing is healing: how many times have I been in a tense situation, to have it broken open with laughter? Nothing settles and soothes like laughing with someone.
So when I laugh (or make someone else laugh--I seem to do that a lot, especially when I'm not trying to be funny), I think God uses that to show that we are all equal-and-not-equal, that we are separate, artful creations, but also share this huge Sameness of unending, unexplainable love. Sometimes, in laughter, you can sense that Otherness, that joy that turns into joy and turns into joy. The kind of happy that hurts.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, I would definetely have to agree that the best word to describe your laughter with is "explosive". Now that I think about it, I couldn't have put it better myself. It's a good thing though! Not horrible at all!

Saturday, April 08, 2006 8:32:00 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home