Dropping Crumbs

My youngest son Timmy loves to be played with physically. He loves to be spun, tossed, bounced, and flipped. The other day I was standing in the kitchen, and Timmy walked up to me wanting “up”. I picked him up and let him wrap his legs around my waist. Then I leaned him back into my arms and began swooshing him back and forth.

Timmy immediately began to giggle in that infectious way that makes everyone around him want to laugh too. His mouth dropped open, and crumbs from something-or-the-other he’d been eating fell out as he giggled. He was enjoying life and having a blast.

That’s the kind of enjoyment I want to get from life too. I don’t necessarily want my food to fall out of my mouth, but I want to enjoy life wholeheartedly, in a way that makes others want to join in.

Granted, there are some things in life that aren’t any fun. Timmy would acknowledge that. Getting told “no” doesn’t make him laugh. Neither does getting his nose sucked out with the bulb syringe. In fact, he cries. Screams, is more like it. And there will be times in our lives, too, when we wail in protest.

But the rest of the time…oh, the rest of the time, I want to laugh like crazy! I want to squeeze every bit of enjoyment out of life that I can. I don’t want to miss the moments of laughter because I’m too busy thinking about the unpleasant times; I don’t want to enjoy them any less because I’m so stressed out about the other stuff of life that I just don’t have it in me to laugh when “laugh time” comes around.

Even Jesus laughed. The Bible doesn’t say so specifically, but it does show examples of His enjoying life. Jesus was invited to a wedding, and He went. He was invited to more than one banquet, and He accepted the invitation. He embraced children. And these are only some of the examples.

The Bible doesn’t tell us Jesus ever enjoyed the warmth of the sun on a beautiful spring day, or the peacefulness of being out on the water on the Sea of Galilee. But He must have. He made those things! And if we, being human, enjoy them, how much more must He enjoy His own creation?

There must have been times He laughed till He cried. There must have been times, when He was a child, that He enjoyed His mother or father’s embrace. Maybe He even enjoyed playing with them in the same way I played with Timmy, giggling until everybody else joined in, crumbs falling from His lips.

Maybe you and I should take a lesson from Jesus. And from Timmy. Let’s deal with the unpleasant parts of life when they have to be dealt with. But when life brings out the giggles in us, let’s enjoy it to the fullest.

Psalm 118:24—This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (NIV)