A smile is an act of love.
June 28, 2022
It is always with God that you travel on your pathways in a steady journey toward becoming all love. God’s presence is experienced in so many ways. Some are more easily recognizable than others. There are of course the nudges, the hunches, the feeling that somehow you are being directed to do or think or explore in ways that you had not imagined, but there are other ways that God’s light is part of your journey.
God’s presence is not just providing a light. God’s presence is actually more one of encompassing and embracing. Where you are embraced, as we have said before, you are surrounded by a comforting presence, and it is that embrace, it is that spiritual surrounding, that serves to open your heart’s vision to the direction you proceed toward. It is that presence of God that gives strength and courage, that gives a feeling of connection.
You may feel connected on your journey with others and not necessarily consciously acknowledge that your journey is with God. There is no problem with that, for the expression of true love is that sense of belonging, and when you are accompanying others on their journeys and they are accompanying you on yours, that sense of belonging is in itself an expression of love, and that love is part of the presence of God that we often say illuminates that pathway.
When you think of illumination, you think immediately of greater ease at seeking whatever it is you seek. But such illumination as you begin to understand it is not just presence being felt by the senses that you can then identify, “Aha, that is God on my pathway.” If you feel alone, and someone embraces you with their kindness, with their understanding, with their listening, or with their presence, that is God’s illumination, for in that presence, in that encounter, your pathway does become clearer. You are freed of some fear or anxiety. You’re free from the sense of insufficiency. You may be freed of guilt. The presence of others is always strength-giving when that presence is offered to you.
In that same light, your presence in the journey of another, while perhaps not consciously offered as a direction of God, is a reflection of that illumination. You are illuminating the pathway of another. In that illumination you are feeling a sense of belonging. You are in the presence of the other, or the other is in the presence of you.
God’s illumination, therefore, is far more impactful than what first comes to mind when you think to yourself, “Oh, I know what I need to do.” Such insight can of course come from God, from your guides, but that gift of presence from your guides, from God, extends far beyond what you are quick to recognize. We speak often about our relationships with human beings, and we speak of your connection to us, but it is important that you bring into your understanding that such connections have impacts even without any awareness on your part.
You can be a presence in the life of another in ways that are unintended and yet helpful and, in their ways, loving. When you encounter someone on the street as you pass by, even a simple smile is affirming the value you place on the presence of that person, however short that instant may be. The person is acknowledged and is acknowledged through warmth, through the countenance that you offer. You will not say that I need to be God’s presence for that other person. You simply are offering kindness, and kindness belongs to the universe of love, for without kindness there is no love. Love begins with acceptance, and acceptance only occurs when there is kindness. So that simple smile to a stranger, that brief acknowledgment that there is value in the presence of the other is an act of love, is an illumination of their pathway.
God’s presence and the presence of your guides are real, are concrete, and more often than not unconsciously welcomed. We do not insist that you feel you must “consult with your guides before every event that you encounter or action that you take,” but whether or not you invite the guides, they are there. There is no reason to feel you must consciously seek out that illumination from God, that illumination from the guides, for it is there.
A young child does not ask the parent to be loving, to be giving, to be caring, to be sensitive, to be supportive, but when a parent is all of those things, the child’s journey is enhanced, and when those characteristics are denied, the impact on the child is also clear. The child does not ask to be loved, but the child knows what it means not to be loved.
Being loved is not necessarily something that one is requesting. It is simply there. You don’t ask God, “Please God love me,” but you can feel at times as if there is that presence, and yet at other times, not be so aware. That love that we speak of from God is constant. The love of your guides is constant whether asked for or recognized or encouraged or not. That presence, that light, that illumination is always there.
The question was raised this evening about whether spirits have a sense of humor. A very apt question and one that we can honestly say yes to, but the humor that we feel is different from the human form of humor. When you experience humor, it comes from surprise. It comes from an unexpected direction. It leads to an outcome that was unexpected. In much of the humor that human beings experience, there is a sense of victim. There is a sense of someone being foolish or someone being overly clever, or someone finding a totally different direction or a different way of seeing what is there or imagining what is there.
For us, there are no victims. For us, surprise or perspectives that come totally unexpected is not part of our experience. What brings joy to human beings is often humor. What brings joy to us is love. Humor is joyful. What creates joy for us is growth, is this transition, this transformation we speak of. The joy that we feel is unbounded. It gives us lightness as well as illumination. When we experience such shared joy, there is no humor at the expense of another. There is no humor that denigrates one in order to elevate another. But the end result is the same. You experience joy, you experience a release of the burdens you may feel through the humor that you experience. For us, the benefit is the same.
Your guides are not all just serious entities that think in philosophical terms about the presence of God. We love and we find joy in that love, and for us, that release of energy through love is the same as the release of energy that you encounter through humor. The human condition is incapable of being fully love, and yet there must be opportunities for a release from the burdens that are felt, and for that reason, the humor that you encounter and that you generate becomes an essential part of the human experience. We cannot imagine what our lives would be like if there were no moments of great, heartfelt joy.
We alluded to this joy in our last message with you, that being the joy of participating in this evolution, this transformation, this journey from life to life, from life as small letters to LIFE as large, capital, bold letters that are aflame with brilliance and joy. For us, the greatest joy of all is in being part of the growth of other souls. It is in our giving to one another that we experience that amazing and eternal joy.
You can also find ways of experiencing deep and profound joy. You may call it humor, you may not. This wonderful sense of release, relief, this wonderful feeling of being transported to a much lighter energy field reality through your accompanying of others on the pathways that we describe is always possible. You can experience some of the joy that we experience when you allow yourself to become a light to others, whether that light comes from an embrace, from a personal sacrifice, or the warm presence of a smile. In all of these ways, you are bringing joy, and you can allow yourself to be lifted and transported and given your own light.
We bless each of you in the humor you bring to your life. We bless you in the loving you share with others. We bless you in the great joy that you can feel for the growth, the transition, the transformation of those who surround you. It is the peace that you seek in the end, a peace that is not intended to mean no energy, but rather a peace filled with great light, great life, and a soul that laughs through love.
Amen.