“The Lord bless you and keep you, The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.”

“The most universal expression of all is a smile.”  Bill Bryson

When was the last time you smiled?  Not in a “smile for the camera” kind of way, but spontaneously and genuinely.  There is a difference, as the French anatomist GB Duchene de Bologne first noted in the late 1800’s.  In what has become known as “The Duchene Smile”, one’s eyes constrict and crow’s feet form in the corners. It can’t be faked.[i]

So, when was the last time you genuinely smiled? And what was the cause of it?  I’ve been smiling a lot these past two weeks during my time with the dear children of Ray of Hope ministry in Battambang, Cambodia.  I smiled while playing UNO with them; I smiled eating ice cream with them; I smiled when I saw the new shoes that some of them received; I smiled when five of them were baptized; I smiled when I greeted them every morning and when I bid them farewell each evening.  I’ll probably do just the opposite tomorrow when I say goodbye to them for another year.

Very few of the children speak any English.  And I only know a few basic words of Khmer.  On the surface it might seem that would make communication difficult.  And in some ways, it does.  But most of human communication, up to 80% by some estimates, is nonverbal to begin with.  We communicate with our energy, our body posture, our tone of voice, and yes, our facial expressions.  In truth, some of the most important messages, like that of love, mercy, and kindness, are conveyed without words.  In fact, I would say that’s true of the very Gospel message itself.  It’s unfortunate that a literate society has been taken captive by an inordinate emphasis placed on verbosity when it comes to God Things.  We’ve perhaps lost the appreciation for icons, and incense and such.

Non-verbal communication is an overlooked essential in human interaction.  And I believe this applies to God as well.  For much of my formal religious life I was led to believe, and in turn taught, that God’s most important message is a spoken one, recorded in the words found in the Bible.  To limit Divine communication to one solitary means is to miss out on much of what God conveys in so many other ways.  It is to miss the message of the rainbow given to Noah, the wrestling that Jacob did with The Angel, the Great Fish that swallows Jonah, and of course the Word that first communicates by taking on flesh.  There is a great deal of Divine Communication going on as recorded in the Scriptures, but throughout history including into the present if we’re just paying attention.

Though filled with anthropomorphisms, the Bible doesn’t talk much about God’s face.  Yet in a passage almost as familiar as John 3:16, the blessing of God is tied intimately to God’s face, and even more specifically God’s smile.  “The Lord make His face shine upon you . . . The Lord lift up His countenance upon you.”  Two specific references, stated slightly differently, to God smiling.  The blessing of God, central to the Judeo-Christian tradition, is intricately tied to God’s smiling face!  And a smiling face, like a blessing, is not merely something to hear about, but is something to behold!

So, when have you seen God’s smile?  When have you been on the receiving end of a blessing delivered in the form of God’s smile?  Perhaps it was in the face of a dear child who has run to embrace you.  Maybe in the full moon that’s been peering down on us these past few days, or in the sunrise of a new day.  Could it have been in a beautiful flower, or a fresh snowfall?  Maybe it was in the kind expression of someone you reached out to help, or who helped you.  Or maybe it was in the mirror? 

For the past two weeks I’ve seen God’s smiling face in the faces of the little children of Ray of Hope.  Like the children I’ve been surrounded by the past few weeks, I believe God is constantly smiling upon us.  It’s just a question of whether, and where, we see it.

One last thought.  I believe that faith in a God who smiles blessings upon us is an invitation for us to bless others by doing the same.  It is encouragement to smile at others, whether family, friends, or complete strangers.  And in so doing pass the blessing of God on to a world so badly in need of such a simple and significant gesture.

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[i] I discovered this in the book “The Body:  A Guide for Occupants”, by Bryson.  I consider this a must read for anyone wishing not only to gain a better understanding of how the body works, but in the process to discover what a miracle it is!