Dear Trekker,
Remember that awesome TV show, “Smile, you’re on candid camera”? Sorta evokes a smile, doesn’t it? Or that frequent greeting, “Smile, God loves you, and so do I.” Yes, trekker, smile, it looks good on you.
But, I’ve often wondered… why does the Bible say nothing about smiling? (Oh, someone said there is an obscure reference in Job about smiling, but if you can find it, let me know.) Surely a smile is taken for granted in Scripture. Why “command” one to smile when we do it so easily. I read somewhere a smile involves 17 muscles in the body, whereas a frown involves 44. Whew!
When the Lifegiver walked the earth, I’m certain He smiled frequently though the Gospel writers never mention it. Can you imagine Jesus saying, “Permit the little tykes to come to me and don’t get in their way, for my Father’s Kingdom includes them”, without siling? I can’t! And when Elizabeth spoke to Jesus’ mother and exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear… as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped”, can you imagine her greeting without smiling? I can’t!
So a smile is effervescent and ubiquitous! Just think trekker… every moment of every day God is smiling through you and me and every smiling face on the surface of earth! He loves to smile, I believe, and so should we. His joy bubbles over!
I recall years ago one of my immediate seniors, a three-star general, encouraged me to smile more. Ugh! I took it as one of the most devastating criticisms of my life. Over the years, I had been told quite often, “Jim, you have a beautiful smile.” That is music to one’s ears… to yours, too, I bet. But I have an intense side of my personality; smiles sometimes get shoved aside when harried, weary, and just plain tired. Not good!
How blessed to be made in the image of God! A smile is His universal language, His major tool of encouragement. Have you ever noticed… everyone is beautiful when they smile! Have you noticed the first thing we desire our babies to do… we tickle their cheeks, smile at them, and say, “Smile”. And lo and behold, in a few weeks they do and we’re in seventh heaven! Years ago (I think I wrote about it once before) my advisory team in Vietnam collected the money necessary for a little village boy to have his cleft palate surgically repaired. Oh, I’ll never forget his smile after the surgery. Thank God for “Operation Smile” volunteers who repair childhood facial defects around the world today. What smiles emerge!
There is nothing like a smile to melt one’s heart. I fell in love with Ms. Barbara 55 years ago because I had never in my life seen such a gracious smile on a young woman. Her smile captured me. And the other day I discovered one of our radiant youth staff in Italy likewise captured a young man’s fancy, and her smile alone warmed his heart for a year all the way to Afghanistan. They will be married in a couple of months! True story… he couldn’t forget her smile!
For sure, a smile is the shortest distance between two people. Wear one… one size fits all! It always increases one’s face value. And it says, I am willing to open myself to others and “I receive you, too!”
A smile, too, is an open door into the warmth of our lives which can so easily spill into others. Over the years as I have travelled the world, I have “employed” my smile and the corresponding smile that returns to me when greeting a stranger. You know something, “You have a beautiful smile” can be used to evoke an even more beautiful smile. Works every time! The clincher, “You know where your beautiful smile came from?” “No, not really!” “Well, I have good news for you. God loves you, and so do I and He gave you your smile because He loves you.” And wow, I am off and running, talking not to a stranger, now a new friend… that God so loved him/her that He gave His only Son that we might smile with Him forever… and never die in the process. Try it; it works!
That person “Anonymous” (which is really, I think, another name for God, since all “good stuff” flows from the Father of Light) said: “A smile costs nothing, but gives so much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the meaning of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it. Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen for it is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired or ill or sad to give a smile. Give them one of yours.” Now, that’s wisdom.
Hey trekker, let’s start a smile crusade. Yes, you and me. You can’t be sad if you smile a lot. The world always looks brighter from behind a smile, and you feel better, even when the market has tanked. Somehow a smile is nature’s curve that sets life straight, even when the road is a bit bumpy.
We are to be the light of the world… nothing lights up the world like a Colgate smile! What a powerful weapon; you can break ice with it.
Let’s keep climbing, trekker, and infect the world with our smiles! Not one person lack, till the whole world smiles back! Remember friend, your smile looks good on you!
Your smilin’ friend,
Jim Meredith
You’re the gtreaest! JMHO