Martin Luther said, “It is pleasing to the dear God whenever thou rejoicest or laughest from the bottom of thy heart.” And who does that more frequently and sincerely than children? Talking to kids about Heaven was the focus of an interview I did with Greg Laurie, senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, for his radio program about my book Heaven for Kids.

One of the things I love about working with the team at Eternal Perspective Ministries is how wise and biblically-based their answers are to the many questions people ask. Someone asked a great question and this answer was right on target. Hope you enjoy it.

In our culture, most humor is based on joke telling, verbal ambiguities, and physical comedy. Jewish humor often employed witty hyperbole—clever, startling, over-the-top statements—to get a laugh. Though some comedians today do this and we laugh, when we see Jesus use the technique in the Gospels, we usually don’t get it.

Here are four images and captions I love. I’ve put them under the categories of love and friendship, regret, disappointment and self-doubt, and finally, melodrama.

I grew up with a Golden Retriever, a great breed. When I was a boy, my golden, Champ, used to crawl in my sleeping bag when I spent the night in the back yard (watching the stars and reading comic books with a flashlight). Nanci and I love dogs. We enjoyed this video, and hope you do, too.

Here are photos of some of the more bizarre looking animals God has made. Some make me smile, revealing God’s sense of humor and delight. Some just make me shake my head and wonder at His creativity.

Here is Steve Harvey, a comedian, addressing a secular audience at the end of his routine. The question is, “How Would You Introduce Christ to a Room Full of People?" I’m not vouching for Steve Harvey in every respect (I’m unfamiliar with him), but I love this.  

We've spent a few days with our grandsons, Jake and Tyler Stump, who live just up the road from us. We were on the sled, threw snowballs and built a snowman in our side yard. You can't often do that in our part of Oregon, and we've had a blast.

Just as Jesus promises satisfaction as a reward in Heaven, he also promises laughter as a reward. Anticipating the laughter to come, Jesus says we should leap for joy now.