“Joy to the world, the Lord is come.
Let earth receive her king,
Let every heart, prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing.”
We sing that with voices ringing and joy in our hearts, for Christmas is really a happy time. A time to enjoy, to relax, to visit and exchange gifts and, more important, our presence with relative and friends. We gladly endure the hassle of packing and travel to be “home for Christmas”.
Even composing the yearly Christmas letter about family happenings, brings a warm feeling of accomplishment.
Laughter is the order of the day, merriment, mirth, enjoyment. There are many kinds of laughter.
For instance, at a wedding I conducted years ago the bride and groom exchanged vows and rings, and the groom then fainted dead away. The bride did the only thing she could do, she giggled. That’s one kind.
People giggle, they guffaw, they snicker, they cackle. They roar. Some have a musical laugh that is pleasant to hear, others have more of a snort. Others again have a nasal twang that kind of grates on the ear. Some groups, in restaurants, for instance, make lots of noise when they enjoy something, others enjoy such company with a quiet chuckle.
I’m a chuckler, my laughing is more internal.
Laughter expresses enjoyment and mirth. It involves facial muscles throat, lungs, mouth and eyes. It is usually involuntary, and sometimes the impulse comes at the most inappropriate times. [Like for the man who was attending an aunts funeral and kept wondering why they kept referring to Josephine when her name was Ellie. So when he asked his neighbor sitting next to him he found he was in the wrong church.]
We can control the volume and tone of our laughter. It’s called fine-tuning.
So enjoy the season, the visits, the exchanges, the tales to tell, the news of nephews and nieces, aunts and uncles, and long-forgotten friends of times past. And do laugh. That is, finally, a gift of God, is it not. To enjoy His creation. And most of all, to the enjoy His Birth as your Savior, and mine.
GPD 12/27/07
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