HIS SHOULD BE FUN, I thought, contemplating this title. I'll find places in the Bible where God dealt with people in a tongue-in-cheek manner, with an ironic twist, and show that God has a sense of humor. After all, He created laughter as part of our makeup, so it must be in Scripture.

I began with the story of Samson, figuring that anyone who thinks a jawbone is a perfect defense against 1,000 men must have some kind of droll wit about him. But then I realized that there is nothing funny about 1,000 people lying about all bloody and quite dead, no matter how they got that way.

So I flipped over to David, star of Bible soap operas, who played the country bumpkin role against that professional wrestling headliner with one name-Goliath-with the future of two nations wagered on the outcome. It seemed to have promise; but I got to the end of the story: David lops off Goliath's head, and the suddenly-inspired Israelites respond with an adrenaline rush and chase the Philistine bullies all the way home to Gath, leaving most of them as roadkill strewn along the Shaaraim highway. Humor at the expense of so many didn't seem quite so funny. Dark humor, they call it.

So I looked up "laughter" in the Bible concordance and found a few passages where God laughs. But these verses talk about God's laughing at the plight of the wicked. They thought they were doing well, but He knew better. He knew what the end would be.

Where, then, is innocent laughter? I thought. The kind that invigorates you, makes your day look brighter, and gives you crinkles on your face the people attribute to a wonderful personality.

It all became clear when I was talking with a friend who had been through a traumatic divorce about a year earlier. I asked how she was doing and she said, "I can laugh about it now." That's when it hit me. She was saying that in the middle of the pain, when she couldn't see how this could all come out for good, she couldn't laugh. But now, having seen how things worked out, she could laugh at many of the things she had experienced. She knew the outcome, and it was better than she had imagined.

So I mulled that over and thought, OK, I can laugh when everything's said and done. And God can laugh beforehand because He already knows what the end will be. So if I can share God's foresight, I should be able to laugh even before the end of the story. I set out to explore that notion.

I found the story of Abraham and Sarah. God had just told the 89-year-old woman of her upcoming pregnancy. She stifled a quiet laugh, which of course God heard. How did she think she could fool God? Abe, her 99-year-old husband, wasn't so circumspect. He laughed right out loud. In fact, that line just laid him out; he fell flat on his face with laughter. Any comedian would have been gratified at results like that. God was not so amused. He just said, "I'll be back in a year to see the new kid." The next year, when the kid was born right on schedule, he was named for laughter, and Sarah said, "Everyone who hears this story will share this laugh." Isaac became a living punch line.

Those With Faith Can Laugh
It appears that laughter is intimately related to knowledge of outcomes or the lack thereof. If I know how things will turn out, I laugh with confidence. If I'm unsure or disbelieving, it's nervous laughter.

All of this sounds curiously like the one ingredient Christians can't live without-faith. Perhaps the mandate to live by faith covers everything to do with life, including laughter.

When Paul and Silas were treated with rude hospitality in Philippi, feet in stocks in the inner prison cell, nursing their sore backs from a severe flogging, they sang hymns and prayed through the night. It doesn't say they laughed, but they must have had a lighthearted approach if they were keeping a bunch of convicts awake late in the night with their singing. I imagine they weren't singing funeral dirges, especially as the Bible says their audience hung on every note rather than throwing stale prison rations at them. Whether or not they actually laughed, it is clear that their upbeat attitude didn't come from their immediate circumstances. It was a result of faith that God had things already worked out and would let them in on the secret in due time.

As in everything, Satan makes it his job to counterfeit gifts God gives-and laughter is no exception. In the uncertainty of today's culture, people turn with great appetite to things designed to make them laugh: sitcoms, movies, comedy clubs. All in an effort to face the undesirable and fearful with bravado, if only for a few minutes. But when the laughter dies, the world hasn't changed, and another laughter generator is needed. This is false laughter, based on a temporary obfuscation of the present. It represents nothing beyond itself.

However, when a person is connected with One who has the power to foretell and even determine outcomes, and when that One has promised His loved ones that He will work out everything for our good, then that person has every right to sit back, take a deep breath, and enjoy a good hearty laugh, whatever the circumstances. It is not a moment of empty hilarity or temporary amusement. It is an act of faith!

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Reger Smith, Jr., is public relations director for the Communication Department of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Silver Spring, Maryland.