Monday Morning Manna: A Time to Laugh – or Not

Yesterday’s Father Day observance brought back a few memorable events. My kids had given me a Three Stooges tie bearing the pictures of Curly, Moe, and Larry. At their request I wore it to my Seminary office on the following Monday. Mid-morning brought a call from the Seminary President’s Office. I was requested to hurry there immediately, which was good, since one does not want to spend a long time wondering about such a request. Once there, I was introduced to a young man who was wearing a torn shirt and was covered with scratches. He had come to the Seminary to visit with his fiancée, only to have her break their engagement. Distraught, he jumped in front of a freight train as it passed the Seminary campus. Rather than killing himself, he bounced off the train and rolled on the ground. Police picked him up and delivered him to the President’s Office, where he met me. I was told to counsel with him. So there I sat, communicating with a devastated former fiancée, who couldn’t even succeed at taking his own life – and I was wearing a Three Stooges tie. The writer of Ecclesiastes offers a sample list of “every purpose under heaven” – listing “a time to laugh” as one of the purposes (Eccl. 3:1, 4). This was probably not such a time, but I couldn’t help but think, “He who sits in the heavens laughs” (Psalm 2:4, NASB). Sometimes, God laughs when we can’t.