a laugh

I heard the most beautiful sound today. It was the sound of real laughter. Not a laughter amounting from some joke or from too much sugar. No, this laugh emerged from something much greater; it was the laugh of a heart that realized its true hope; it understood freedom from death. It was after singing songs of worship, Christ-exalting, genuine, grace-inspired worship that a girl behind me caught a glimpse of true hope, of the promise for her eternity with Christ. She began to clap loudly, shockingly loud at first, but her voice joined in harmony with the joy her hands were expressing, and she began in jubilant child-like laughter, more free than any bird's song this world has ever heard.