He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting. (Job 8:21 ESV)
Laughter and Hope
Bildad the Shuhite has one of the funniest names in the Old Testament. A common quip is to refer to him as the shortest man in the Bible, Bildad the Shoe-Height. Bildad makes me laugh.
But Bildad reminds me of laughter in an even better way. Bildad reminds Job that God brings laughter to the lips of His people. Particularly His people who are blameless. In other words, with New Testament understanding, those who are entwined with Christ Jesus.
We will laugh.
Some days I really need to know that, and I suspect you do, too. Some days we can barely see through the tears, but we will laugh. Some days we can barely hear anything but cries and moans, but we will hear laughter. Some days we can barely lift our sad souls from the mud of sin, sin’s effects, and sin’s presence. But we will live with laughter.
This is a hope that we can cling to every day. We might not have laughed this morning, but Jesus will yet fill our mouths with laughter. We might not be laughing in the midst of a grey, cloudy, wet afternoon, but Jesus will yet fill our mouths with laughter. We might not be laughing as we try to sleep, our minds far too filled with worry and sorrow. But Jesus will fill our mouths with laughter.
Bildad is right. We have hope of laughter.
Take the hope God grants us.