A Daddy's Smile

“Watch me, Daddy!”  Remember hearing those words?  If you’ve had children, you do.  In fact, there are probably very few  words you’ve heard more often.

Why does a child always want to be watched,  and why do we always watch with a smile on our face?  Because we love them, and children love to see the smile of acceptance and approval—to know that they are loved.  We all do.  It’s a universal need.  How sad for those who rarely receive this gift—especially the gift of a smile from their Daddy.  My Daddy nearly always wore a smile.  Everyone who associated with him, received them regularly.  Yes, there were times when I was on the receiving end of punishment (needed, of course), when Daddy’s smile was upside down, but most other times, his face was lit up with a smile of love.

I think about Dad a lot when I walk.  I remember how much he enjoyed these scenes that my eyes are feasting upon on nearly a daily basis.  This morning was no exception, and a walk was just what the old body needed.  Seems like most Mennonites around here are over at the annual MCC Relief Sale in Dalton.  Perhaps I should be there too.  Some of us just aren’t “crowd” people, and a walk in the country is what we need for mental and physical health.  So it was a good day to walk.  A nice warm day, but not too hot.  Sun shining, and a gentle breeze blowing.  Four miles and many smiles from friendly neighbors who were also out and about, and conversation with an Amishman who is on the Kidron Volunteer Fire Dept.  He doesn’t drive, of course, and it’s over two miles from his home to the fire station.  He has a small trailer that hooks to his bicycle, and the trailer contains a five-and-one-half horsepower engine for push-power.  I see him go whizzing past my house regularly, at what appears to be about forty-five miles per hour.  He’s often one of the first ones to arrive at the station.

Our Swartzentruber Amish neighbors have their oat fields cut and shocked now.  They finished up yesterday, and the scenic view of yesteryear’s farming methods is nearly breath-taking.  Johnny let me get his picture as he plowed the field in early April, and then his dad, Sam, planted the oats mid-April, and yesterday I watched as Sam drove the horse-drawn binder—a fore-runner of the combine—that cuts and binds the oats into bundles, dropping them onto the ground.  Johnny was out there too, shocking the bundles—seven to a shock—six standing upright leaning against each other, and the seventh spread out like a roof, laying on top of the six.   Can’t help but smile as I wave at Sam and Johnny, and they smile and wave back in a friendly greeting.

Sam, running the binder.

Sam's son, Johnny, putting together a shock of oats.

Another family in the field, shocking the oats.  The girls help too.

Smiles can have a lot of different meanings—just like the different types and paces of walking.  Seems there are smiles for every mood and circumstance.  For example:

• The exuberant smile: When you just heard some terrific news that makes you break into mile-wide grin that can’t be contained.  This also happens when your child is born.

• A tired smile: At the end of a long day, and you kick back in the Lazy Boy for a while and glance over at your wife in her Lazy Boy, and you both sigh, and smile at each other.

• A forced smile: When you bump into someone you really didn’t want to see, but you must act as if you’re happy to see them.  (Shame on me.)

• A fake smile: When you’re posing for a picture, and the photographer is taking too long.

• An embarrassed smile: When you scratched where it itched, then turned around and noticed that you weren’t alone.

• A hopeful smile: When you did something stupid, and need some grace.

• The hidden smile: When those sitting around you begin wrinkling their noses and you want to laugh out loud, but you must keep your face straight, because you know where the odor is coming from.

• The genuine smile:  Like the smile from a Daddy, or the smile from your child.  But best of all, the smile from your bride.

Considering all the above, it seems that a smile has more to do with the eyes, than the lips.  Actually, probably ninety-five percent of a smile is in the eyes.  The lips spread wide, but the eyes tell all.

   *     *     *    *     *

Our daughter Angie, is our fourth and last child.  Before she went off to college, she occupied a large upstairs bedroom in our old farmhouse, and her room—along with some others—needed a face-lift.  But hers was the worst.  We made promises to paint and redecorate it, but time kept getting away from us.  The summer before her junior year in high school, she asked us numerous times, and it was our good intentions to get it done before school started.  We even had the paint purchased, but unfortunately, it didn’t happen.

In September, she managed to find a ride to Michigan to visit her older sister for a weekend.  We looked at each other, and said, “This is the perfect time.  Let’s surprise her, and get the room done while she’s gone!”

So we worked hard on Friday evening with the help of some friends, sanding and painting the trim and ceiling.  What a gift it is to have friends like that.  On Saturday we prepped and painted the walls—two coats.  New, lacy curtains brought a finishing touch to the room.  It was late when we finished, and we sank into bed Saturday night tired, but with happy smiles on our faces, and scarcely able to wait until the following evening when Angie would arrive home.

On Sunday afternoon, the hours crept by slowly.  Several times I climbed the steps and looked into her room just to admire it, and make sure everything was perfect.  It was.  Every time.  The purple/lavender walls were accented beautifully by the off-white ceiling and trim.  The new white curtains hung delicately and added a very nice girlish touch.  The bed was made perfectly with a hand-stitched quilt that matched the walls, and the floor was picked-up and swept.  This was now a room that had no resemblance—none—to the room Angie had rushed out of on Friday afternoon.  I stood in the doorway one more time, and let out a satisfied sigh.  It was difficult to continue waiting, because we knew she would be thrilled, and would express her delight openly—as is her way—with squeals of delight, wide smiles, hugs, and words of appreciation.

Back downstairs once more, I looked at the clock for the hundredth time, and the hands appeared to have stopped moving.  I managed to find some things to occupy my time for a while, but a couple of hours later was compelled to make yet another trip to the room.  The view revealed the same as before, and I smiled once again in great anticipation.  And THAT was my moment of revelation!  Perhaps even a moment of epiphany.

So THAT’S how He feels, I thought!!  So that’s how Jesus feels!!

Remember His words in John 14?  “I go to prepare a place for you...”

I can picture Jesus looking over heaven, and smiling, and waiting in great anticipation for our moment of intense happiness and joy, as He takes us for a stroll and shows us Heaven and the places He is lovingly preparing for us.   I have to believe that He is waiting just as anxiously as I was, and I believe our delight will be indescribably greater than anything we could experience here on earth.  It’s true I believe, that He continually delights in giving us the beauty of all creation, but He’s going to top it all off with the things He is preparing for our future in heaven.

And His is the smile I long to see.  It is possible to picture it in my head,

but to stand in the presence of my “Daddy” in heaven, and see His smile face-to-face, that will be the day.  For now, I will continue walking, and see His smile in the fields of ripened grain, in the white Queen Anne’s Lace and blue Chicory flowers that grow along the roadsides, and in the blue sky decorated with puffy clouds.  These are God’s gifts, and He smiles through them.  Let’s enjoy these marvels of creation, and smile back with a word of thanks.

Queen Anne's Lace and Chicory growing prolifically in the ditches.

The Jericho Amish school house, next to a field of shocked oats.

From Kidron, Ohio, a really friendly place, where you are sure to see some smiles.  This is where the homely men actually appear to be handsome when they smile; and the beautiful Swiss women know just how to bring out those smiles, with some good home cooking and a fresh, warm peach pie; and all the lovely children—those miniature versions of ourselves, so full of energy and laughter—they’re smiling too, because Daddy is wrestling with them on the living room floor.