Sometimes we can feel like we’ve got nothing to smile about. If anyone had a right to feel like that, it was Job. He’d just experienced the death of all his children, the loss of all his money, and was now covered from head to toe in boils. ‘When I smiled at them, they could hardly believe it; their faces lit up, their troubles took wings! I was their leader, establishing the mood and setting the pace by which they lived. Where I led, they followed’ (vv. 24-25 MSG). That’s how powerful a smile can be. One Christmas a big department store posted this sign: ‘The Value of a Smile: it costs nothing, but creates much. It enriches those who receive it, without impoverishing those who give it. It happens in a flash, and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None are so rich that they can get along without it, and none so poor but are richer for its benefits. It creates happiness in the home, fosters good will in business, and is the countersign of friends. It is rest to the weary, daylight to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and nature’s best antidote for trouble. Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is no earthly good until it is given away. And if in the last minute rush of Christmas buying some of our salespeople should be too tired to give you a smile, may we ask you to leave one of yours. For nobody needs a smile so much as those who have none left to give!’

What now?
Start a chain reaction this Christmas - walk round with a smile on your face and see what happens.