Belly Laughs

I didn’t expect her to laugh. I anticipated a smile, hands clapped together in delight, even a baby dance or two, but the belly laugh that rolled from her toes and rumbled out of her tiny mouth caught me by surprise.  Before I knew it, I was laughing too. 

I took Maggie to the zoo not long ago. Hannah’s day off from kindergarten set the stage for a special outing with my youngest girls. I’d known Hannah would delight in the animal excursion, but I hadn’t imagined that Maggie would be so wildly entertained by the outing as well.  The moment she spied the long-necked giraffe, she started to laugh. And laugh. And laugh. Racing from cage to cage (or more accurately, waddling in a hurry), Maggie colored the air with chimes of glee. From the snoozing lions to the chattering monkeys; the praying prairie dogs to the strutting penguins, Maggie applauded God’s creatures with infectious giggles. Unable to resist staring, fellow visitors stopped, watched, and joined the irresistible laughter of one tiny toddler.

When the brown-clad zoo keeper leaned out of his feeding truck and said,  “I wish every guest enjoyed the zoo like her,”  I made a wish of my own. I wished for Maggie-style-joy. I wished that instead of growing up even more, I would “grow down a bit”.  From the posture of a child, I want to spy God’s handiwork with awe and applaud my creative Maker with the praise of laughter.

In the words of author Shauna Niequist:
“I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don’t want to get to the end, or to tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and thrown parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift” (For some serious inspiration to laugh much and fret little, check out Shauna’s book, Cold Tangerines and her website http://www.shaunaniequist.com/ ).

Today’s Treasure:  We were filled with laughter
                                  and we sang for joy.  -Psalm 126:2