![]() He had to have laughed, because he created us to laugh. We can infer God’s playful heart from the above examples, but I was unsettled by the fact that we never once see an example of Jesus laughing in the New Testament. ![]() And what about a donkey speaking up to correct Balaam? I’ll bet God had some fun with that. They would surely have laughed together and maybe even played a favorite game or two. I wonder if God got a kick out of Joshua asking for the sun to stand still? Jesus was good friends with Mary, Martha and Lazarus, and I would love to have listened in on some of their conversations. I can only conclude that God wants us to enjoy his creation, to play in it, to laugh. What additional evidence do you see from creation that God is playful? Evidence from Scripture Why did God create a world that would routinely delight people with fantastic sunsets, beautiful sunrises, and stunning scenery? Why did he make giraffe’s necks so long? What is the purpose of a peacock’s plume if not beauty? Why did he create such a magnificent variety of lovely butterflies? Why did God give people a sense of humor? And what’s with the platypus or the warthog? The joys of a toddler with a train! Children are born with a natural desire to explore their environments through play. With the subject of play on my mind, I paid close attention to the way my 21-month old grandson played, like the way he drove a toy train around the track in complete focus and absolute delight. ![]() I decided to look for evidence of play in the two forms of God’s revelation: general revelation (creation) and his special revelation (Scripture). My search was nowhere near exhaustive, but it makes me wonder if Christians tend to be a little too serious. Are we all trying to be such good Christians that we have forgotten to enjoy God, to delight in his creation, and to have fun with each other? I found a fair number of articles and TED talks by psychologists and doctors who advocate the benefits of play for people of all ages, but not one of them was from an explicitly Christian perspective. What does God think about our playfulness? Is God playful?Īs I was preparing to speak about play at a recent retreat, I googled “play and the Bible” and found one blog post, written in 2007 by a retired science professor, and following that was a Bible Hub source on Zechariah 8:5, which says, “The streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.” Other inquiries on Google were, What does the Bible say about playing the lottery? and Where does the Bible say that you are not to play instruments? You get the picture. Playing a game, going dancing, enjoying a dinner party with friends, and going hiking can all be wonderful, playful pursuits. Play is something that we do for the sheer love of the activity.
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