The face among the flowers was not a face but a flower
that blurred the edge of comprehension until everything
became a face, everything had eyes, everything had a mind
with secret thoughts inside, and so the barn with its smudged
windows stood aware of impatience and time, and the trowel
with its small head in the dirt plotted how not to be found,
and the old dog, who of course had her own old grey face,
came to have another one, and shifted and sighed on her rug
while thinking about philosophy and the stillness of God,
and then the depths of the afternoons she had passed alone
crossed into my heart, and the ants climbing the table stopped
and looked up, and I fell away blind into a softer knowing
as if into the flowers who took me as one of their own.
~Annie Lighthart, “Fluency” from Pax

Newborn babies, despite their hazy vision, will lock their gaze onto a face, and begin to smile back within a few weeks of life. They reciprocate because they are wired to respond, which reinforces a parent to smile back at their adoring and adorable baby.

So it is no wonder we see faces in all sorts of places as we seek reassurance for ourselves, that yes — we belong here. In fact, we are created to reflect God’s image. He knows us and recognizes us.

We naturally hope the rest of the world will smile back at us.