Your teeth are as white as sheep that are freshly washed. Your smile is flawless, each tooth matched with its twin. (Song of Solomon 6:6)A girl smiled at me in WalMart the other day. And when she did, I was 16 again.
I am almost fifty years her senior, but her smile was so pretty and so without guile that it popped me back a long ways. I do not know who she is or was, I did not approach her, but I have thought about her for a few days now.
It is funny that a 63 year old man who is happily married can be so reduced by a young girl’s smile, but it is true. And, of course, she meant nothing by it. She was probably one of these happy girls who likes to smile at people. Here was this old guy and she smiled. She probably smiled at children, young married people, dogs and cats – she was just a happy girl.
But what amazed me was my reaction to the smile. It was so pretty and unexpected and took me so by surprise. I was not ready for it.
When I go to church, I expect people to smile at me. And I smile at them, whether young or old. It is just a part of social interaction. The same goes for the grocery store and other places. I smile and say hi a lot.
But to have a pretty girl smile at me unexpectedly was something else. And I liked it. It made me feel young and remember what it was like for a girl to smile at me just out of the blue.
Girls used to smile at me a lot. I even remember when I would catch the eye of a girl out of the blue. We would look at each other and maybe smile, but nothing would come of it. I remember one girl who was walking with her boyfriend. I caught her eye, she caught mine, we turned and looked at each other. She smiled kind of sad and turned around to live her life.
I never was a handsome guy, but I was big and strong and vital looking. I looked like a dominant guy and women noticed me. Not that they fell all over me or anything, but they did notice. And they would smile.
I liked having girls smile at me and smiling at them. I liked it even after we were married. My wife knew I was not cheating on her, so she left it alone. Smiling at a girl is an absolutely normal reaction to a man. It is the most natural thing that happens. It is also, I believe, just part of the male/female thing that goes on even after you are committed to someone. It is a realization that you are still male and can appreciate a girl in a natural way.
It is the acting on it that becomes wrong. If I chased the girl down and tried to ask her out for a date because I figured she was coming on to me, that would be stupid on my part and would hurt her. she would probably recoil in horror at this old geezer trying to flirt with her.
I realized soon in life that the smiles and flirtatious looks young girls in the youth group would give me at times were nothing more than practice for life. I was a guy, even if a little older, so they would smile at me and act coy, knowing that they were safe from my advances. Just practicing. And any man who is in any kind of leadership has to know that.
That girl was smiling at the world. she was happy and pretty and slender and probably had a Justin Bieber song (barf) in her head and was just smiling.
I loved her for it. I just hope and pray her life goes well and she finds that special person who will smile back and they will connect.
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