This past Sunday, we sang two of my FAVORITE worship songs by Phil Wickham at church. I love them. I understand that worship is not only about the worship music, however music is a way that I connect. So when I find that song that moves me, I can be a hot mess. These two songs do just that. One Is called 'You're Beautiful'. I'm not going to talk about that one, I just wanted to let you in on the secret (you can hear them on you tube) ;) The other is called, "Divine Romance". I love everything about it. The lyrics are as follows:
During the chorus I literally feel like jumping up and down and dancing around the room. Also, while singing this song, I can't stop smiling! I can only imagine what joy it brings to my Father to know that I am smiling for Him because there is such joy in my soul-all for His Glory! Can you imagine the day when we get to see him smiling at us face to face? How powerful will that be??!! Have you ever thought in general about how powerful a smile can truly be? A smile in itself transcends all languages. It doesn't matter what language you speak when you feel the joy from a baby smiling for the first time. Or how about your friend smiling after you made her laugh for the first time since she'd been crying for the last hour. Better yet, you are a little kid on your first day of school. You're scared and nervous, you're not even sure you're in the right place and then you see the warm beautiful smile of a loving teacher and your fears instantly go away. ( BTW, that did happen to me and I was in the wrong place. Heck, I wasn't even on the right floor. I can still see her warm smile as though it just happened yesterday. I'm proud to still call my 4th grade teacher friend to this day.) What an impact that smile had on me!
This past Saturday, I was blessed to witness another smile that had a deep impact on my life. We were out during our routine stops while feeding our campers. One of our volunteers had a pair of boots for someone that was not at his normal stop. Since we really wanted to get him the boots he needed, we decided to stop by an area where he usually sleeps. This is not a normal stop for us, but we thought it was important to try. The man we were originally looking for was not there. However, we did encounter another man who was not smiling at all. In fact he was angry at the world. He was mad at himself for falling into addiction, he was mad at other churches and people for making broken promises. He was so mad in fact, that a fellow volunteer jumped out of the car to be by my husband's side; as he did not think the situation looked like it was going so well. I eventually jumped out of the car too, to find out what in the world was going on. I saw the sadness on this man's face. (I'll call him Rick) You could tell that Rick could not even see a glimpse of hope for his life. Just standing in his presence brought a heaviness. Michael did not give up and made sure that Rick heard what we had to say. We invited him to church. He was concerned about having to wear what he had on. We agreed to re-wear what we had on too! Then Michael asked if I would pray for him. Several times during the prayer I felt him squeeze my hand. At one point he leaned over and kissed the top of my head. After we finished praying I looked up and would you imagine what he had on his face!? The biggest smile you'd ever seen. Our brother even mentioned how nice it was to see him smile like that. The next morning we put on our same clothes and went to pick Rick up. On the way there, we prayed that he would show and that the Holy Spirit would guide us through the morning on what to say and do. My stomach was in knots and for me that is saying a lot, because I do not get that way very often. I so desperately wanted him to be there. We pulled up and there he was in the shade under the tree as agreed. Talk about smiling. It was a huge Yeah God!! From the time we picked Rick up, until the time we dropped him off, he was nothing but smiles. Smiles that we came through with our word, smiles about yummy Tim Horton's coffee, smiles about church, smiles about the bike that was donated he could have, and on and on!! My biggest smile came when my husband called me this morning. He was meeting Rick at the Holy Family soup kitchen on Grubb Street to deliver Rick's bike. He said the Rick was nothing but, you guessed it-smiles- when he saw Michael delivering his bike. Michael said he was excited about the bike, but he was really just happy to see Michael's warm smile again. Rick immediately asked when he was going to get to see myself and the kids again. Then he confessed to Michael that all day yesterday he was carrying rock around with him in his pocket. Last night he chose to throw the rock away. THAT made me smile! I glowed from within with a big, "you go God!!"
What is it that makes you smile? Take a few moments and think of a time or two when someone smiled at you that made you feel like the world was okay again. Then I challenge you to make a point of trying to make others smile this week. Maybe it is a co-worker who just needs a friend to listen, or letting someone out before you in traffic, or even just telling your wife how beautiful and wonderful she is (aaahhemm) :) I challenge you to see how many smiles you can 'collect' this week. I bet by the end of the week, they will not be the only ones smiling! Don't just be this week . . . be great!!
Be Blessed,
Nicole :)
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