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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Richard Reddie from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland

Good morning!

This time last year the Jamaican singer, Sizzla, topped the reggae music charts with his song, ‘Solid as a rock’, which had the lyrics: ‘You can’t keep a good man down, I’ve got a smile on my face, When you want me to frown’.

Among other matters, Sizzla’s lyrics about smiling and frowning also remind us that it takes more muscles to frown than to smile – or so the scientists suggest. This means that it is a lot easier (or less work) to smile than to frown.

We live in serious times, and we invariably extol the virtues of serious people who can respond to the issues of these times. We tend to dismiss those who smile or laugh easily as jokers or clowns.

I’ve always regarded a smile as a precursor to laughter – when you can no longer contain your smile it turns into an outburst of laughter. Interestingly, today is national laughter day, which connects laughter to acts of kindness and giving. The message is also that laughter is contagious and is good for you. When was the last time you enjoyed a good old fashioned belly laugh? One of those that brings tears to your eyes?

In the Hebrew language, the name Isaac means ‘laughter’, and one of the first instances of the word occurring in the Bible, is found in its first book, Genesis. Here, the biblical matriarch, Sarah, who miraculously gives birth to a son (Isaac) aged 90, bursts out laughing when she becomes a mother for the first time. I wonder if God smiles and laughs. If he does, he was no doubt smiling after creating this wonderful world in which we live.

While life is serious business, let us still find time to smile and laugh, especially at those little things we often overlook in our busy-ness. Gracious Lord, I thank you for the power of laughter. Which is contagious.

Amen

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