laughing prayers

Spiritual resource to share:

36,792,551 - that's the number of people who have watched one of the laughing baby videos on youtube.com. These clips are incredibly popular!



This one has been viewed only 8,826,596 times. But I liked it best because of the interaction with the dad. View it and see how many times you laugh. How can you even have room for the slightest hint of sorrow when there are laughing babies in the room?!

This laughing clip reminds me of two things.

In a conversation with my prayer team (an ecumenical group of people who work in the chapel and with the hospital chaplains), we talked and laughed about prayer and laughter. In the Bible Jesus tells us how to pray "And when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen." How will you know when you are finished with prayer?" - was part of the discussion. We agreed that you will know when you are finished when you can come out laughing.

The second thing it reminds me of is a very loved Christian Science practitioner. Kind sparkly eyes, a little blue tint to her white hair - she was so kind, so approachable. She was the first practitioner I ever called on when I was a tween suffering from warts all over my feet. Her response to my call for help was "Oh, be joyful!" She was always joyful! "Oh, we can see more of God's majesty at work! Be joyful!" This made me chuckle. And throughout the day, I sang a song she gave me to sing. Sometimes it made me laugh. By the next day, the situation was totally cleared up.

How much we have to be grateful for! How attractive laughter is! Watching these little clips, you can sense the security and love these little ones are surrounded by. There is no striving to get to this great height of inspiration and love. It comes naturally. They know, wordlessly, that they are loved and trust that they are cared for. With that firm foundation, they totally delight in the beautiful and the goofy, the surprises and the anticipation of good coming their way.

Belly laughing, falling over with laughter, full throated guffaws - life doesn't get much better than this. It's a great way to look at prayer and an even better lesson in how we can end our prayers with total delight and an ongoing expectation of good!






To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.