Smile

Have you ever seen a chimpanzee smile? Let me answer that for you: you haven't. You may have seen them make silly faces, but you have not seen them smile because they do not posses the ability to smile. They lack the necessary muscles and nerves required to smile and laugh. 

While humans have about 50 facial muscles, apes have fewer than 30. Among the 20 fewer muscles are the ones at the corners of the lips needed to lift upwards into a smile. Even if they had those muscles they still would not have the nerves that work in conjunction with the muscles. 

Have you ever seen a baby smile? Let me answer that for you: you have. Babies are born with the ability to smile, even if it is several months before they smile out of happiness. Smiling is something humans have hard wired into our DNA from birth. 

Why can humans smile but not chimps? According to Darwinian evolution, anything humans have that lesser creatures do not have has evolved out of necessity. In other words, those extra facial muscles are only present because humans cannot survive without them. But how do primates survive just fine without the ability to smile? Why would humans have evolved the extra muscles and nerves? What does that have to do with survival of the fittest? 

The evolutionary answer would be that animals simply don't need to smile in order to survive, but the natural question arises: why do humans need to smile? Humans were created in the image of God, and we are the pinnacle of His creation. He made us last and set us apart, and we are the only redeemable part of Creation because we are the only ones He died for. He made us emotional beings and gave us the ability to communicate non verbally. Whenever we smile we are testifying to God’s magnificent creation, and even on our worst day, we have a lot to smile about. 

If you find yourself having a bad day, say with Job, “I will forget my complaining; I will put off my sad face and smile (9:27).” Smile, if for no other reason, because you can.