Prayables - Revelation 21:4 - Scripture

Blog: Heaven is a Private Joke

Some families live by rules and Bible quotations. Mine speaks private joke — little sayings or pop culture quotes that no one outside of our tight-knit pack would understand. Many originated long before my birth: “Save some for Virginia” (from the movie “The Snake Pit”), or “It’s hot in the boots” (from Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows”).

Some speak to the folklore of my childhood (“Five more minutes until the ice cream’s ready!”). Some are running jokes (my father claiming that his favorite singer is Ethel Merman — he can’t stand her, actually. Claiming to love something you hate is classic Harris family fun). My brother and I can quote verbatim the last ten minutes of the “Goodbye, Johnny Bravo” episode of the “The Brady Bunch” with my mother adding the scene-ending punch line, “You know, the suit never really did fit right through the shoulders.”

This family-speak is not meant to exclude. It is our bonding mechanism, the verbal equivalent of a hug. My husband and sister-in-law speak it as if it were their native tongue. They’re up for a good Bubba Rangel joke, even if they’ve never seen Bubba Rangel (a grade school classmate of my brother) in their lives. Our words draw us together and bring us joy.

One of the characters in the novel The Company of Women, by Mary Gordon, hopes that heaven will be like a private joke, a sudden giddy inclusiveness, an instant feeling of belonging. That’s what our language is for us. It’s a quick rush of home and family and being part of something larger than yourself.

I, too, hope heaven is like a private joke. If, upon seeing Him at last, God says to me, “Sit, Rachel,” I’ll know I’m home.

- Lori Strawn

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

Revelation 21:4

Joke: Funniest Grandparent Jokes

A teacher asked her young pupils how they spent their vacation. One child wrote the following:

"We always used to spend the holidays with Grandma and Grandpa. They used to live here in a big brick house, but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Florida and now they live in a place with a lot of other retarded people.

"They live in a tin box and have rocks painted green to look like grass. They ride around on big tricycles and wear nametags because they don't know who they are anymore. They go to a building called a wrecked center, but they must have got it fixed, because it is all right now.

"They play games and do exercises there, but they don't do them very well. There is a swimming pool, too, but they all jump up and down in it with their hats on. I guess they don't know how to swim.

"At their gate, there is a dollhouse with a little old man sitting in it. He watches all day so nobody can escape. Sometimes they sneak out. Then they go cruising in their golf carts.

"My Grandma used to bake cookies and stuff, but I guess she forgot how. Nobody there cooks, they just eat out. And they eat the same thing every night: Early Birds. Some of the people can't get past the man in the dollhouse to go out. So the ones who do get out bring food back to the wrecked center and call it potluck.

"My Grandma says Grandpa worked all his life to earn his retardment and says I should work hard so I can be retarded some day, too. When I earn my retardment I want to be the man in the doll house. Then I will let people out so they can visit their grandchildren."

READ MORE FUNNIEST GRANDPARENTS JOKES!