The Humor Sense

It is a fact that we all of the five senses, the ones that we use to interact with the world around us, animal, vegetable, mineral and people. Some people also claim to have a sixth sense, a paranormal ability like Extra Sensory Perception (ESP), or clairvoyance or any of a number of other abilities related to that field. Most people also have a seventh sense, a sense of humor. Humor varies from person to person, culture to culture, and country to country. What is funny in one place may not make any sense to someone who is not from there. There are those people who have rather dour personalities and don’t see humor in anything.

When we think about God, we usually think of him as the artistic representation of an old man with a beard, flowing robes, and a stern look. We don’t think about God as having a sense of humor. We see him as stern, loving, and all-everything. For some reason we don’t look at God as the source of what is funny in the world. We look at ourselves and others with various senses of humor and, since we are made in the image and likeness of God, it is reasonable to believe that God likes a good joke now and then. We know about the stories of creation and how he made the animals and plants and man. If you want to know if God has a sense of humor, just look at the platypus the next time you go to the zoo or look it up online. The platypus is a mammal, but it is an egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal. It is as if when God got through creating the animals, he had a bunch of parts left over and put them together in a hodge-podge fashion. Hence, the platypus.

There are a lot of people, well-meaning people, who believe that we should always be serious when we talk to God, talk about God, pray to God. We don’t see much in the way of humor in the bible and people carry that on into their spiritual lives. Yet, how many times have you been listening to a sermon and the pastor made a point by saying something funny or telling a joke? What if there was a movie about Jonah in the belly of the whale, except the actor who played Jonah was a comedian? Can’t you just imagine for a moment the humor of seeing him slipping and sliding around, falling into whatever was really yucky, yelling back at God? Yes, he finally got the message and told God he would obey, but just think how that in-between time had to have been.

We have to be reverential towards God. He is our creator. But being reverential doesn’t mean walking around looking like we just bit into a sour pickle. It means doing everything we do with him in mind, even to having funny experiences and telling jokes. If we all have a sense of humor, where do you think it came from? Are we not made in his image and likeness?