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Message from Peter W. Marty

Smile :)

By Peter W. Marty (Smile, above, provided by Don Megown.)

The current issue of Smithsonian includes the story of a New England artist who is behind the Smile Boston Project. Bren Bataclan is determined to sprinkle more happiness into the Boston area. On a small canvas he paints a smiling cartoon character and then leaves it on a park bench near Harvard Square. The note taped to the painting reads: “This painting is yours if you promise to smile at random people more often.” Bataclan then retreats to the bookstore across the street and watches with fascination as passersby study these brightly colored cartoon characters. The one large eye, one small eye characters are all painted with a delirious grin, which in no time at all also become the face of scores of onlookers. Eventually some smiling pedestrian carts the painting off.

Smiling is a global language. In preparation for the 2008 Olympics, 100,000 Beijing volunteers are being trained to smile at any person within a 10-foot radius. Customs officers in Thailand are confronted by a current campaign to get them to smile more often. Walmart discovered long ago that a happy greeter at the door, in a one-size-fits-all blue vest with a smiley face on it, translates positively into the bottom line.

Smiling is a universal language. Every emailer and text-messager in the world knows that a colon, followed by a parenthesis :) is a simple way to communicate a pleasant or happy feeling. New parents make a point of telling their friends when their infant first cracks a smile. Our favorite family Christmas gift last year was a set of nine DVD’s featuring old Candid Camera clips with Alan Funt’s ubiquitous line: “Smile, you’re on Candid Camera.” And did we smile and laugh!

I will always remember the year when a ticket agent at the Ft. Walton Beach airport in Florida singled out our family and bumped us up to first class. The long line of delayed passengers was angry and grumpy, almost to a person. Something about my wife’s pleasant way at the counter caused this agent to say, “You’re really a nice family, and so understanding.” If the truth be told, it was my wife’s incredible smile that brightened the day of this forlorn woman.

So here’s the question of the day: Why doesn’t the Bible make any reference to smiling? Well, there is one, locked deep in the recesses of the Book of Job. But that’s it. When Jesus picks up a child and speaks tenderly of a child’s place in the kingdom, there is no way he showed scorn in the lines of his face. Yet Matthew, Mark, and Luke say nothing about a smile. In the creation story, God delights in all that is good, even adding the word very before good once human beings come along. But there is no reference to a smile. The authors of scripture describe all kinds of emotions, feelings, and passions connected with God and Jesus. But never a smile. Why?

I don’t have an answer. Perhaps your ponder-ings will reveal something. I simply know that the world is a better place with smiles added into it. The human smile may be our most potent symbol for communicating cooperation and trust. Yes, people also smile at times of embarrassment and fear. But think of all the contentment that accompanies your instinct to smile. To write out a check for something significant … To marvel at a child’s happiness, infinitely more carefree than your own … To delight in something more beautiful than you could have imagined … You gotta smile!

Pastor Peter W. Marty, senior pastor,

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