Christmas is just 23 days away. Advent began this past Sunday - some of you have been opening little treats from advent calendars for a few days now. A couple of days late for Advent, I decided I’d like to give you all some advent treats as well. I’ll make them as delectable as I can. And I will have one of these little gifts for you every day between now and Christmas.

Here’s today’s gift: humor. If you know me at all - even if we only met once - you know I LOVE humor. For me, it’s not just a way to get a laugh, but also to enjoy rich entertainment, break the ice, defrost chilly relationships, bridge cracks in communities, but perhaps the most useful things humor can offer us now is to dispel tension and reconnect us. Yawns can be contagious - but humor is “contagious-er!” At least it can be - and man is it fantastic when it is.

I LOVE that Jesus received the children. And I love that picture of Jesus laughing - with His head thrown back. You know looking at that picture that His laugh in that moment came from His belly and was hearty.

Remember when people used to e-mail each other long (multiple screens long) emails full of puns, funny stories, jokes, mock news-flashes, and such. Today’s gift - is I want to encourage you to remember a time you laughed and laughed. Maybe you were playing with kids, a pet, or hanging out with friends.

I remember a family pick-up softball game years and years ago. Some friends from Austria were traveling around the U.S. and randomly stopped by my parents’ house. Unusually - I was actually there. We invited them in just in time for dinner - bologna sandwiches, with plastic-wrapped cheese slices, and potato chips. My Austrian friends were gracious and confused about how to enjoy a bologna sandwich and hilarity ensued. After dinner, we walked a couple of blocks up to my old high school’s softball field and played a game. My mom was short-stop. Not sure if it was the bologna or the international flavor of our game - but we all got really, really into it - and the hilarity peaked when my mom (close to retirement) DOVE to catch a grounder - and bounced. She stood up and laughed. The runner stopped running and fell to the ground laughing. Soon we were all laughing the most hearty belly-laughs. My mom just kept saying “I BOUNCED! Like a BALL!” and we just kept laughing with her - in that way when your quiet, hard-working mom all of a sudden turns comedienne and everyone’s in a complete fit of laughter.

How about you? How many funny moments can you recall from your life? I hope you can find some time to remember a few before you slide into bed tonight.

Come back tomorrow - and we’ll open another gift.

Till then - here’s a little something for you to giggle at