Day 1 Resurrection Story – Laughter

I’ve let go of the notion from childhood churches that resurrection or new life was brought into the world by Christ. I am more inclined to believe that the possibility of new life has always been present and will be for all time. From the beginning the earth was filled with signs and wonders pointing toward life after death and Christ crystallized the hope that it was true.

Yesterday, Chuck and I sat at a table with friends who are family. While death has touched all of our lives we have still found a way to come to the table with each other and find new life. The evidence of that new life was laughter.

We laughed at how the Wiggins’ are verbally challenged. I asked them in all seriousness if they wanted tofu nut coffee to which the silent reaction and looks on their faces should have told me something. Then I realized that we actually had toffee nut coffee which sounded much more appetizing. Chuck shared his story of reading that Lara Flynn Boyle is dyslexic and then thinking that must be why she’s so thin. We laughed at the South Park episode explaining the connection between the Easter Bunny and Jesus dying on the cross. Jeff brought colored eggs so he must have already known about the secret Hare Club for Men. We tried to watch the movie Enchanted and laughed at how each of us struggled to stay awake after enjoying all that wonderful food together.

Laughter is my mother’s legacy. The most laughter I’ve ever heard was at her funeral. The thing that made her happy was making others laugh. She had found a way to bring balance to all the pain in her life. It was her coping mechanism and how she found beauty in the ashes. As I spoke to individuals in the receiving line at the visitation for her, I could also hear people down the line telling stories of something funny that she had done or said. Even at her own funeral she gifted all of us with the experience of laughing in the midst of our great loss. We could go on because she had shown us how to laugh in the face of death. Life wins.

I imagine there was some laughter after Jesus returned from the dead. Laughter is the result of an unexpected outcome. There must have been laughter that gave way to joy because the unexpected outcome of life after death, resurrection not resuscitation, had been held up, for once and all, as truth.