Readers Digest has told us for years that laughter is the best medicine. It changes your facial features, replacing wrinkles with laugh lines. Even the best cosmetics can't do that. Some pastors frown on laughter. They go around with long faces looking to the entire world like they were sucking a green lemon.

God has a sense of humor. Who else would think of turning Lot's wife into a pillar of salt, or having Noah build a ship in the middle of a desert land? If you don't think God has a sense of humor, just look at yourself in the mirror when you first wake up. How about the animals he made? Did anyone ever look at a giraffe, a hippopotamus, or a duckbilled platypus without at least a smile? I don't think so.

Then there are the words of the apostle Paul where he tells us to rejoice in all things. He even repeats it, “Again I say rejoice.” He might have been thinking about the time Jesus was confronted by the man filled with legions of demons. “What have we to do with you?” the demons demanded. Without much trouble Jesus cast them out; they went into a herd of pigs, and the pigs ran into the ocean and drowned. That must have been quite a sight. Of course, the locals asked Jesus to leave after that. They weren't too happy about the pigs. I think Jesus had fun with the Scribes and the Pharisees. “Should we pay taxes to Caesar?” they asked him.

“Well,” Jesus said, “Whose picture is on the coin to pay taxes?” {Caesar's,” the Pharisees replied.

“Then give Caesar his money and give God what belongs to God.” Jesus answered. I think He kind of smiled as He walked away from that one.

There was the time Jesus was accused of healing a man on the Sabbath. That was a no-no, apparently. His answer to them was a classic comeback, the kind I would have said, ‘I wish I had said that.’ He said (paraphrased), “Come on, not a one of you fellows would leave your ox in a ditch if it fell in on the Sabbath. Isn’t this man infinitely more valuable than an ox?” He healed the man right there on the spot and made the man very happy.

Every preacher has a really good day once in awhile. The spirit is flowing and his sermon is right on. On one such occasion Uncle Nathan, my west Texas circuit riding pastor uncle, sat down to lunch and said, “Maggie, I just wonder how many really great preachers there are.”

Maggie was pretty wise and she said simply, “Lord, Nathan, I don't know but there is one less than you think there is.”