Fun Is Fundamental Series

Geography students after traveling around the world by books

were asked to list what they considered the seven wonders of the

world. It was a hard decision but such things as Egypts Great

Pyramids, The Taj Mahal, The Grand Canyon, and The Great Wall of

China, were getting a lot of votes.

The teacher noticed that one of her students, a quiet girl, had not

entered into the discussion. " Are you having trouble," she asked, and

the girl said, "I couldn't make up my mind because there are so

many." "Well tell us what you have," the teacher urged. She stood to

her feet and read from her paper-"I think the seven wonders of the

world are to touch and to taste, to see and to hear, and then to run and

to laugh and to love."

This little girl was tuned into a different channel and she was

sharing wonders that are indeed greater marvels than any of the

so-called 7 wonders of the world. None of them would be anything

without those gifts of God that enable us to wonder at them and enjoy

them. She was listing wonders not limited to one place in the

geography of the world, but to those wonders that God has given to

those made in His image all over the world.

Her seven wonders are more wonderful because they are not just in

one place, but in every place. I don't know what her teachers response

was to her answer, but our text tells us that God's response is a hearty,

heavenly amen!

This chapter of Zechariah is God's description of the ideal life for

His people. It is a picture of just how good it can be when he blesses

His people. We want to focus on just a few of the details. Notice in verse 5,

God says His ideal of the perfect city is one where

the city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there. Then in

verse 19 He says the fasts will be changed to festivals and become glad

and joyful occasions.

There is something about this chapter that gives you the sneaking

suspicion that God loves fun, and He loves His people to have fun.

This may seem a little too light hearted, but I intend to show that fun

is fundamental to God's nature, and His plan for man.

This subject is so vast in Scripture that my hardest task was to

figure out how to limit it. The entire message could be devoted to just

quoting Bible verses on gladness, delight, joy, and feasting. I was so

overwhelmed with the number of texts dealing with the feelings of

having fun that I couldn't get a handle on it until I discovered the

word play, which is a synonym for fun. It is the Hebrew word for the

children playing in the streets, and it is the ideal word for study

because it is used only a few times in the Bible in referring to the

feeling of playfulness. Let me share with you the context of these few

verses on play.

God seems to be in a playful mood as He responds to Job, and asks

Him all kinds of questions about His creation. In Job 40:20 God is

speaking of one of His largest creatures, either the Hippopotamus or

Elephant, and He says, "The hills bring him their produce, and all the

wild animals play nearby." A few verses later God is really getting

into the fun of making Job see his physical insignificance compared to

His great creature called the leviathan, and in 41:5 He asked Job,

"Can you make a pet of him like a bird or put him on a leash for your

girls?" This same Hebrew word for play is used there for "make a

pet of him." Jehovah is joking with Job just as we do when we see a

creature like Godzilla, or some other monster, and say, " wouldn't he

make a great pet?"

What we have here is God's acknowledgment that the playfulness

we see in the animal kingdom is not an accident, nor is it a part of the

fall. The playfulness of creatures that makes us enjoy the zoo, and

nature films, and pets, is built into the animal kingdom by God. It is

part of His plan that man should enjoy the playfulness of animals and

have them as pets, and enter into the fun of play with them. We don't

have time to persue this-we are just taking a peak. But this peak tells

us why we enjoy our pets. It is because God made them to be playful.

In Psalm 104:26 the psalmist is describing God's vast creation, and

then He comes to the sea, teaming with creatures, and He says,