I enjoy clowns, and one of the things I like best is to watch a clown who’s pretending to be some very important person: a flag waving politician with a constantly growing nose, perhaps, or a severe judge with a gavel the size of a sledgehammer, or a lascivious doctor putting his stethoscope to questionable use with a pretty aerialist, and so on and so on. They’re always very sure of themselves and they comically expect deference and respect from the people around them.

When we see this in real life, it doesn’t strike us as funny, but it does when we see it from a clown because, after all, it’s a clown!  With a big red nose and orange hair and baggy trousers and size 50 shoes!

It’s very plausible that God – who invented humor, after all – looks at each one of us the way we look at clowns.