I have been writing for She Loves for the last few months, things I learn in seminary that everyone needs to know. This month I am thrilled to be talking about new ways in which I have encountered Jesus. Seminary is for everybody!
I wish someone told me how funny God is. And I don’t just mean lame pastor joke funny. I mean hysterical. Laugh out loud, long set up, OH MY WORD DID THAT REALLY JUST HAPPEN funny. Y’all. I had no idea.
When I was in the third or fourth grade my mom went on an Emmaus walk. I remember this mostly because I remember the little tokens she brought home to remind her of her time there. She kept them in a top drawer mostly, but there was a picture of Jesus she stuck in her mirror above the favorite baby pictures of me and my sisters. This picture of Jesus was like nothing I had ever seen before. The reason my mom loved that picture was because she felt the same way. In this picture, Jesus was smiling. Not just a “smiling with my eyes, looking nicely and softly at a child,” but, like … really smiling. Really, actually smiling, like I-am-about-to-laugh-out-loud-from-the-delight-of-being-with-you-because-I-actually-really-like-you-and-being-with-you-makes-me-laugh kind of smiling.
I’m not sure if it’s because of the felt boards or the stained-glass windows or the pictures in the kids’ Bible, but when I picture Jesus, he always looks so … serious. It never really occurred to me that Jesus was funny, that God’s messages could be delivered a little less like Dan Rather on the nightly news and a little more like John Oliver on Last Week Tonight. But Jesus being a crack-up to make a point is well within the Hebrew tradition of a prophet.
Abby Norman 
Oh Abby, you and I are meant to be best friends, you just don’t know it yet! (I know, I sound all crazy stalker-ish, don’t I?) But, seriously, I just started following you a few weeks ago; I can’t remember if I first read your work on the Be the Bridge FB, or my best friend Holly’s posts (she is a She Loves writer, as well, whom I think you know.)
But, either way, since following you, every blog you write, has me saying, “that’s exactly how I look at it, and what I would want people to know about it, too!” I have long been a recognizer of God’s hysterical humor- “if I had a nickel” for the number of times I have had to stand, hands on hips, looking up at the sky, saying, sarcastically, “yeah, that was REAL funny, wasn’t it?!” when His joke has been on me….AND I have an actually amazing-to-me-in-a-supernatural-kind-of-way-story of a difficult time in my life a few years back when God brought me back to meet the current owner of the home where I grew up. This new owner had a portrait of Jesus I have never seen, before or since, in which He was full-on, head cocked back, LAUGHING. It was totally a confirming message from the Lord at the time, of some things he was doing in my heart.
Today this comment made me feel not alone. Bless you.
Awesome! Every one of your posts makes me feel not alone 🙂👍🏻 Thanks for your consistent bravery and authenticity.