The importance of humor and laughter was illustrated to me when several classmates and I were invited at Christmastime to decorate the windowpanes of a care center for abandoned children. We were art students, and this opportunity to bring cheer to the youngsters was gladly accepted.

We were told to make the decorations as amusing and colorful as possible, so before painting the characters on the glass, I gave some prayerful thought to this delightful task. I affirmed that God is the source of all happiness and that as His reflection I naturally expressed joy. I acknowledged that qualities such as brightness, form, color, and outline were actually derived of Soul, and that right ideas were already spiritually depicted in consciousness, the divine Mind. Confident that something of this divine artistry could be manifested in humorous, colorful, eye-catching designs, I set myself to painting.

When the work was finished, it was evident that humor is indeed derived from God. Even I had to chuckle at the funny little figures, and it was so good to see the joy and laughter they elicited from the children.

Oddly enough, people sometimes forget that laughter, when impelled by a good and pure influence, can hint at a spiritual experience, an outburst of joy, which is an attribute of God. In one of Christ Jesus' Beatitudes, as recorded in Luke's account of the Sermon on the Mount, we read, "Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh." ^{Luke 6:21.}

Blessedness, or spiritual happiness, is an ever-present reality that can be experienced whenever we gratefully acknowledge the endless flow of good coming to us from God, the source of all joy. In Science, man is wholly spiritual, ever at one with this divine source, and his joy can never be taken away from him. Of course, the questions may arise, "Where is this ever-present joy? How come I am not experiencing it? How can I laugh, or even smile for that matter, with the many problems confronting me?"

When an individual feels so weighed down with problems that there appears to be nothing to laugh about, this could indicate the need to turn wholeheartedly to the divine source from which emanates all joy and the laughter so often associated with it. A darkened mentality was never the design of God. Sorrow, depression, anxiety, have no more power over us than our acceptance of them as reality. Even in the darkest hour, we can discover right at hand the uplifting and joy-filled thoughts of God, His angels taking charge over us.

Since man is the image of God, whose nature is unlimited joy and radiant Life, how can there be a depressed mortal or a darkened mentality? In reality there cannot be! The aggressive assertion of gloom, doom, and tomb is but a mesmeric mental state, whose illusory scenes are no more real than those of a nightmare from which we can wake up. When this depressed sense of being is clearly understood to be a hypnotic state and mentally denied as having reality, the sunshine of Truth and Love will soon break through that darkened consciousness. Then the overcast demeanor and its resulting problems will dissolve into their native nonexistence.

In Miscellaneous Writings Mrs. Eddy states, "I agree with Rev. Dr. Talmage, that 'there are wit, humor, and enduring vivacity among God's people.'" ^{Mis., p. 117.} Joyful exuberance and its song of laughter should be expressed by all of "God's people." After all, if creation is the expression of God's ever-vitalizing goodness, His uplifting vivacity is manifested in all of His ideas.

Let's never lose sight of our true spiritual status, which is ever at one with God, the very essence of all joy. To hold to this absolute fact will help us to maintain a more Christly disposition, a life with more laughter and less frown.