Laugh Out Loud

I saw it again today.  Actually, I saw it a number of times and it never gets old. It was the commercial on tv with all the happy babies laughing. There are many commercials that we all see on tv and say to ourselves, “What were they thinking?”. Of course there have been so many that we wish we would never see again.
Got me to thinking about how many of these companies would have saved millions of dollars if they had only sat and watched their commercial 30 or 40 times before paying for it? Many of them get very old very fast. I have seen, and I bet you have to, some commercials that you don’t want to see again. They are so bad you turn the channel when you see it come on the screen.
But back to the ones we like. There is just something about a child’s laugh that brings a smile to your face.  No, this is not just a woman’s thing. I think the laughter of little children does something to us. Just last evening, when this commercial came on again, I looked across the room to my wife smiling and watching intently. We are past the age of buying the product but, get our attention? You bet.
I remember way back to the first service I preached at the church. One dear lady came outside that warm Sunday summer morning and said to me. “Thank you Pastor, that is the first time I have laughed in church in a long time.” How sad.
What a beautiful sight to behold, seeing a child laughing. In fact, how many of you out there, when you see a baby, try as hard as you can, to do something childish to make that baby smile. Go ahead, put up your hand if you have. See.  We are all there.
I wonder if that was part of what Jesus was thinking when He said to the disciples, “Suffer the children to come unto me  . . . ” Maybe, just maybe we need to laugh more. Maybe our churches are emptying out because we forgot to laugh and laugh out loud. Maybe we are too serious. Maybe, we need to start with a smile when we think of what Jesus did for us and laugh out loud on Easter morning, not because we have chocolate, but because we can laugh out loud because the debt to sin is paid by Jesus himself.
Something to think about.
Rob