They Laugh and I Cry

Laughing emojis are strewn all over social media. 

Many posts make fun of people’s mistakes. Some dig into the private lives of celebrities. Some  ridicule public officials’ faux pax. Some cast aspersions on someone's misery, disguised as a joke.  Some hurl savage insults. Some judge without knowing the facts. Some praise abusive memes. 

And today! In major newspapers' front-page photos, the fugitive Alice Guo is shown laughing triumphantly in wacky poses, like a celebrity, with our authorities and NBI agents. These have gone viral on social media.   

And we reward these with laughing emojies?!  

I cry over what we have become. 

What is so funny? Why do we laugh over sad, depressing comments of and issues on how we view people and life. Is laughing over our misery the special menu for today?  

“Lessen the grief! Ignore the news and social media,” I keep reminding myself. 

“But I need to read my friends’ encouraging posts,” I reply to me. 

 
So I scroll through those hundreds, sometmes thousands, of laughing emojis. 

And I cry, and click on this emoji--a sore thumb in a sea of laughter. 

By grace, the Lord makes me remember the beginning of time. This was once a perfect place. But our first parents upended it big time. And now we are all messed up: happy over what is sad. 

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20 ESV)