GIVE A SMILE

Proverbs 15.13,30
GIVE A SMILE
"A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit." (v15.13)

CHARLES SPURGEON SUGGESTED THAT when we speak of heaven we should let our face light up, but when we speak of hell, our ordinary face would do. The humour in his remark is also a commentary on how God's people often confuse holiness with gloominess. True, we are to avoid empty mirth (14.13), but that does not mean we are to shun cheerfulness altogether.

A painter once drew a picture of Christ laughing. Many people who saw it thought it unusual. They had not thought of Christ looking that way before. Like them, we often think of our Lord as sombre-faced and unsmiling. But if we read the gospels with even the least imagination, we cannot help but see Jesus smiling and laughing. Rough and despised people felt at home with Him as He ate and drank with them (Luke 15.1-2). Can we imagine such eating and drinking without laughter?

A cheerful look should certainly be the mark of someone who is on the way to heaven. If we walk around with a long face, we present a poor advertisement to the world of God's grace. A story is told of a pastor who went about constantly grim-faced. One morning his wife appeared in mourning clothes and announced, "God has died." In horror, he upbraided her for blasphemy and to which she replied, "You go about with such a face of mourning that I could not believe otherwise." Her husband saw the point.

Unless we wish to mourn, we should put on a cheerful disposition. Though a smile costs nothing, we find ourselves reluctant to part with it. Perhaps we are annoyed or tired. Perhaps we see no reason to be happy. We may force a smile if our line of duty requires it. But such a smile is obviously not from the heart. We can tell a false smile when a salesperson comes up to us with it. It disappears the moment we express no wish to make a purchase.

But a genuine smile comes from the heart. "A happy heart makes the face cheerful" (15.13). When we make it a habit to ponder in our hearts the many blessings of life, our thankfulness to God will show soon enough. Nothing evokes a smile as quickly as the picture of a smiling Christ.

Not only does a thankful heart makes a cheerful face, a cheerful face can make another cheerful face. A smile is contagious. Sadly, the world is full of people who seldom smile. They cast their eyes on the floor, line their face with worry, or else stare blankly into empty space. They could do with a smile from us.

Do I light up people's faces with my smile?