Behold the Power of a Smile

The day started out like any other Thursday that semester. Two classes in the morning, lunch, then my biology lab. It wasn’t what you would call the most pleasant day outside, either. After a week of sunshine had graced the campus, I woke up to the sound of rain dribbling outside my window. Outside it was gray, overcast, and downright gloomy. I’m not one of those people who hits instant depression upon losing sight of the sun, but I wasn’t deliriously happy, either. I was having what you could call a "blah" day, where I didn’t care one way or the other how my classes went, I was just going.

During lunch I was reading in the school paper some of the comments the director of campus security had regarding some of his department’s actions toward the students, and they were quite condescending toward us, I felt. Well, what started out as a "blah" day became a disgruntled day. I’d had a couple of run-ins myself with that gentleman and so had a couple friends of mine, so I already wasn’t what you would call supportive of he or his security people. His remarks just made my blood simmer a little bit, and the outside gloominess didn’t really go very far in melting my irritation.

I left my room and began the trek across campus toward the science building for my biology lab, still thinking about the security director’s comments. I looked up just before I passed the administration building and walking the other direction was a cute blonde girl named Emily. Her name was about the extent of my knowledge about her, but she did know my roommate, and I had met her once at the beginning of the year. However, not having any classes with her I don’t think I said a thing to her after August, and it was now March.

Any way, I happened to look up and see her walking, and as I usually do when someone walks by me I was going to smile (although I really wasn’t in the mood at that point in time). Before I could move my lips in the right direction, she smiled at me, and it blew my mind. I did manage to smile back, but when she smiled at me first it had the same effect as if the sun had just melted all the clouds away and birds were singing in the trees. I was walking on air the rest of the way to the science building, and it was because of one smile.

I’m not going to say that we eventually started dating, got married, or struck up some profound friendship. Actually, things just continued the way they’d been since August. But the feeling of happiness I got from that one smile stayed with me the rest of the day. I got to thinking at how great I felt at something so simple as a smile. It cost no money, little [if any] time, and it took no great effort, yet Emily’s one little smile brightened my whole day. The rest of my day I tried to return the favor to people I saw walking by me, and I noticed that it made me feel good, too.

That tiny, insignificant little gift of a smile got me to thinking about something that Jesus said. In Luke 6:38, Jesus said, "Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back"

What that means to me is that God isn’t sitting around waiting for us to have what one of my professors calls "a Damascus road experience." It’s through the little, seemingly insignificant things that He looks at. Remember the widow and her mites? She gave what she had, and Jesus said that in heaven her reward would be great. I’m not saying that you should walk around with a joker type grin on your face, then people really would think you were crazy! Just take a half second and smile at a passerby because who knows, maybe they were having a really bad day, and your smile made it a little brighter. Not only might it make them feel a little better, but it will make you feel better, too. Don’t look to convert multitudes of people, take it one little thing at a time, for your example can often times be the greatest testimony to God that there is.

encounter: What is the gift you are going to give today?