Returning a Smile

By Charla Misse

I’m a smiler. I smile at people when I am running, driving, shopping …  Basically, if a person is within my vicinity, I am going to smile at them for no reason other than them just being there.

No matter what is happening in my own world, I want to emanate “love.”

Every once in a while, when I smile, someone smiles back. A real smile. Boy, does that feel good! It makes me smile all the more – even when no one is around.  (This just happened. Thank you!)

So, I’ve been thinking about our Lord who is love itself and how he smiles at me incessantly. Indeed, everything I am permitted to receive is born out of his love for me. I have not earned any of it. He smiles on me simply because I exist, and I am his.

Now, how happy would God be if I returned a little bit of his love and smiled back at him? I am sure he would radiate even greater blessings on the whole world!

Come, Holy Spirit, come and light up our smiles. Let us be vigilant enough to smile with you in all things. Thanks, and praise be to our God, the light of the world.