I'm beginning to hear God's laughter!

When I padded to my kitchen rocker this morning, I sat talking to the Lord about the latest real estate investment crisis and He stopped me short with his laughter. Yes, I heard God laughing. . . in my mind and heart anyway, but it couldn't have been more real. He came up to me, threw His arms around me, tossed His head back, and with eyes twinkling, full of merriment, released a warm current of laughter. Comforting, not cynical.

Later, in my office, I couldn't journal the experience fast enough. My main point to ponder:

"And then God laughed, not to minimize my pain, but to bring perspective to it, in light of eternity."

He reminded me of the Genesis 17 account of Sarah's cynical laughter over the possibility of a pregnancy in her old age. I wonder now if there wasn't a hint of a giggle under God's breath even then. He knew the hilarious, joyful laughter that was to come in Isaac (literally meaning, "He will laugh"). In Genesis 21:6, after Isaac's birth, Sarah says for all posterity, "God has made laughter for me, everyone who hears will laugh with me."

The question the Lord posed to my heart in the early hours of the morn was, "Can you laugh even before you see the provision concerning the properties?"

And then I noted the ways He has already provided:

1. All our needs met today, and so much more!
2. Grace for the moment in this roller-coaster ride of "now we have a buyer, now we don't."
3. A greater dependence on the Lord as my Husband (Isaiah 54:5).
4. A closer relationship with Chuck.
5. Liberty modules

Then I turned to an Oswald Chamber devotional entry in My Utmost for His Highest, and the last line read: "The saint is hilarious when he is crushed with difficulties because the thing is so ludicrously impossible to anyone but God."

Okay, Lord, I'm smiling.