by Rev Douglas P Brauner

Every face is worth smiling at.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

Two faces, on large screens, greet visitors to Millennium Park in Chicago. One is a woman’s face and the other a man’s…at least I think that’s the case. It was a gray, rainy, day when we visited Millennium Park. I had wanted to see the Cloud Gate sculpture which is more affectionately known as the Bean (I prefer Cloud Gate). However, before we arrived at Cloud Gate, these two faces greeted us.

Millennium Park, Chicago

Getting my son to pose to the left of the woman’s face, I snapped this picture. It begs the question, who are you looking at?

Every day this face looks out into thousands of visitors who gather to gaze at them.

There are many faces that we gaze at each day. We gaze at the faces of our spouses, children, and friends. There are the faces of co-workers, neighbors, and the faces of strangers. We look at these faces, but do we see more than faces? Moses reminds us that we humans are crafted by the Artist himself.

“Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
Genesis 2:7 New International Version

It’s easy to forget that the faces we see day after day are the faces that have been formed in the heart of God, whether they believe in him or not. Each face represents a person for whom Christ died. God has shaped even our enemies.

Because of God and his amazing love for all people, the faces you see today are worth smiling at!

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado