New Year Smiles

James 2:13: Remembering to Smile

For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

From A Tree Grows in Brooklyn chapter 30 by Betty Smith:

She saw a girl named Joanna come out of her house a few doors away. Joanna was taking her baby out for an airing in its carriage. A gasp came up from some housewives who had stopped to gossip on the sidewalk while going to and fro about their shopping. You see, Joanna was not married. She was a girl who had gotten into trouble. Her baby was illegitimate-bastard was the word they used in the neighborhood-and these good women felt that Joanna had no right to act like a proud mother and bring her baby out into the light of day. They felt that she should have kept it hidden in some dark place.

. . . .

It was the signal for the other women to start throwing stones. One, droller than the rest, threw a ball of horse manure. Some of the stones hit Joanna but a sharp pointed one missed and struck the baby's forehead. Immediately, a thin clear trickle of blood ran down the baby's face and spotted its clean bib. The baby whimpered and held out its arms for its mother to pick it up.

A few women, poised to throw the next stones, dropped them quietly back into the gutter. The baiting was all over. Suddenly the women were ashamed. They had not wanted to hurt the baby.

They only wanted to drive Joanna off the street. They dispersed and went home quietly. Some children who had been standing around listening, resumed their play.

Joanna, crying now, lifted the baby from the carriage. The baby continued to whimper quietly as though it had no right to cry out loud. Joanna pressed her cheek to her baby's face and her tears mixed with its blood. The women won. Joanna carried her baby into the house not caring hat the carriage stood in the middle of the sidewalk.

And Francie had seen it all; had seen it all. She had heard every word. She remembered how Joanna had smiled at her and how she had turned her head away without smiling back. Why hadn't she smiled back? Why hadn't she smiled back? Now she would suffer -- she would suffer all the rest of her life every time that she remembered that she had not smiled back.

I pray that we always remember to smile even when we question whether we should. For the person in front of us is loved and cherished by our great God, so much that he died for them as he did for each of us. We never know the mountain of suffering that a person’s facade covers. And I pray that we be agents of Christ’s love to all we encounter, especially the Joanna’s of the world. Amen.

Have a blessed week and New Year!

Stan