Belly Laugh

 
You know the kind I'm talking about....when a kid just laughs from deep down and it just seems to come up from their belly!  It's one of the most beautiful sounds ever!

Well I was at the Doctor's office the other day, and this Adorable little girl came into the waiting room.  She was literally all over the place, full of energy and volume. :)  She had this beautiful infectious laugh though that kept her from being bothersome, although she was so high energy.  As I listened to her, I had the thought...Wow, I wonder when we lose the ability to just laugh like that...at anything and everything.  I smile and chuckle occasionally but it takes a lot, more than it should, to really make me laugh (God's working on that with me)  To hear this little girl's laughter was so lovely.  It just made me smile. I imagined asking this question to many people, about when we lose the ability to just laugh at the simple, and simply find such joy in the little things of life...and I could hear many say, "Just wait until she experiences life...it won't take long, life is tough, and a few rough things and she won't be quite so quick to laugh and have so much joy.  Right now all is right in her world, and it's the laughter of innocence.  Life has a way of taking that away from you...."  I might have been inclined to believe this theory....might have.

The little girl found a little white feather that had come out of one of the pillows on the couch in the waiting room.  She was touching the face of the lady she was with, repeatedly.  Each time the little girl touched the woman's face, the woman would draw back quickly in an over exaggerated sort of way, and the little girl would belly laugh, like it was the first time every time.  I could not help but comment aloud, "Isn't that one of the most beautiful sounds in the world?!"  The woman smiled, I believe happy to know that the little girl wasn't causing aggravation or irritation.  

After a few minutes, the woman said to the little girl, "You better go ahead and eat your bagel."  At this the little girl just kept flitting about and said, "I'm saving it for Grandma."  She kept on playing, and the lady said, "No, it's o.k., you go ahead and eat it."  This made the little girl stop and look at the lady and say, "No.  Grandma was up all night long and the she said she thought she was gonna die she was so hungry, cause the doctors wouldn't let her eat.  Cause of the blood work you know.  She's hungry, so I'm saving it for her."  Well she could see that clearly the lady and I were impressed with her knowledge, and she just looked at us, and shrugged her shoulders and said matter-of-factly, "I'm smart."  At which I had to chuckle and say, "You sure are smart!"

I told the lady, "I think it's so sweet that she wants to save that for her Grandmother."  Then the little girl said, "There's one for Grandma and Grandpa."  So I replied, "You must really love your Grandma and Grandpa", and she said, "I do!  and I never want to leave!"  I wasn't quite sure how to respond, so I simply said, "Well good!  I think that's nice!"

At this point the lady was trying to mouth something to me that I couldn't understand...and then turned to the little girl, and said, "Why don't you tell her why you are living with your Grandma and Grandpa."  The little girl covered her face at this point and said, "No.  It will make Grandma cry."  The lady said, "It's o.k.  She's in the back, she won't hear you."  At this the little girl said, "Oh yes she will hear me and she will cry."  She said this like even if her Grandmother were on the other side of the world, and she spoke, that her Grandmother would still hear and cry.

At this point I thought I now understood what the lady had tried to mouth to me, so I spoke to the little girl and I said, "You know what?....My husband is in heaven."   Her head jerked up in surprise, and she so quickly responded in such a surprised tone, "That's where my mommy is!"   I said, "Really!?  Well maybe your mommy and my husband know each other.  What was your mommy's name?"  and she said, "Joe-Lynn."  I said, "Well my husband's name was John."  At this point the lady told me that the little girl's grandfather's name was John.  I looked at the little girl and I said, "Isn't that neat!  I bet they do know each other.  I bet Jesus said, Joe-Lynn, this is John.  John, I would like you to meet Joe-Lynn."  The little girl was just looking at me with such big eyes, so I said, "All I know is heaven is very beautiful and is a wonderful place."  and then.....the nurse called my name to come back.

Will this little girl ever know how much her laughter touched me?  Was her Grandma pleased to see the bagel?  I may never know.

As I was leaving the Dr's office, the last one to leave the place by the way, I told part of this story to the ladies in the office, and they too had been touched by this little girl.  They filled in a little more of her story.  They shared with me that this little girl had watched her mommy die.  Evidently her mother had also given her one last gift.  All I can imagine is this mother knew she was dying, possibly from cancer or some other issue.

So this little girl, just 5 years old, had already experienced this in her young life, and yet...still had her laughter and her joy!  What an example.  I pray that somehow a little part of her healed even more to imagine Jesus introducing her mom to people, and to just be able to share that her mom was in heaven, and to just say her mom's name again...Joe-Lynn.  She may never know how she blessed me.  I continue to be amazed at the beautiful divine appointments that God sets for us to see such beautiful examples of things he wants to teach us and blessings He wants us to offer others.  I'm so thankful to God for his tender care of this little girl, and the blessing of her beautiful laughter.  God is so good, and I am so thankful that he let me meet, Joe-Lynn's daughter!