A Smile On My Face And On My Heart

by Darla Noble

For the LORD takes pleasure in his people. He crowns the humble with salvation. Let the holy ones rejoice in honor. Let them sing for joy on their beds.

Psalm 149:4-5

My son spent his junior high and high school career running track and cross country. He was an excellent runner; breaking several school records for distance speed. A couple of those records have been topped since then, but eighteen years later, one record still stands. Even more importantly, however, is one thing that also still stands—or rather stands out to me. What is it? Zach’s humility.

Zach was usually first, but always one of the first three across the finish line. He could have easily gone about his business and ignored the rest of the runners. But he didn’t. Each and every time Zach crossed the finish line, he turned around and went to the sidelines cheering every single runner on until they, too, were done. Because he was a distance runner, sometimes this meant hanging around for as much as twenty minutes.

Zach’s humility and team-spiritedness make me think of Jesus’s parable of the master in Matthew 25 who left his servants in charge of his affairs. The master complimented the servant’s faithfulness by saying, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”—the same thing God will say to those us who are faithful until the day of judgment.

God is ever-present in our lives; cheering us on with a smile on his face and in his heart when we honor him by living humbly, and faithfully. And when we do, we can sing for joy knowing our salvation is secure and that we, too, will one day hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

PRAY: God, I pray my life will honor you. I pray I will live a life that is humbly obedient and that I will let others see you in me. Thank you, God, for the gift and reward of salvation and for finding pleasure in who I am. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.