Sea of Faces...

I was at WalMart tonight--just because I could be. And as I was meandering around through all those nifty, exciting little mazes erected by bored WalMart employees for the confusion of the average American customer, I confess that I was deeply fascinated by my fellow human beings...

Thea, I thought to myself, You have to admit that super markets and shopping malls are a brilliant concept--where else would one have the opportunity to see such a diverse group of humanity thrown together in one giant, hurried mass of intriguingly chaotic activity?

A big, burly black woman had parked her heavily-laden grocery cart in front of the banana stand, where she was deeply engrossed in searching for a perfect specimen of the banana variety. I wondered briefly if perhaps she were one of those open-minded individuals who kept a pet monkey at home--but then I took a good look at the gorgeous, curly-haired little person in the front of her cart as he determinedly kicked the side of the lobster tank with one foot just to perturb the amphibious occupants, and I had to admit the monkey theory was improbable.

Just to the left of this commanding dame and her young charge was a puffy little man with a round, white face. His stomach sagged in a way that was highly suggestive of too many jelly donuts, and his empty expression was nicely set off by strands of greasy gray hair which straggled across his forehead in unkempt wisps.

Over in the produce section, a group of Egyptian foreign exchange students were carrying on a lively debate in Arabic as they passed a green pepper curiously from one person to the next, cocking their heads thoughtfully as they attempted to discern exactly what type of tropical fruit this might be.

Everywhere I looked, there were people: big ones, little ones, happy ones, sad ones, skinny ones, fat ones. All of them had faces (what a relief, eh?); all of us were members of the same species, and yet, as I watched, I was struck by how very different each person was from the next. Every face tells a story that is constantly developing, made up of the fascinating minutiae of everyday lives, and every story is different.

The green-pepper-wielding Egyptians smiled and waved, and I waved back, marveling to myself at how much power is held in something as simple as a smile.

I started thinking about faces then...because some people have lovely faces, and some people...just have faces. And I think, deep down, that God probably did that to help us understand that it's not the face that's important...it's everything that's behind the face that really matters.

I left with a new appreciation for the toothless grin of the shriveled little greeter at the door...