The Fragrance of an Emoticon

I never knew what that term meant until a few years ago.  Let me cite reference from Wikipedia:  “A smiley-face emoticon.  An emoticon is a meta-communicative pictorial representation of a facial expression which in the absence of the prosody serves to draw a receiver's attention to the tenor or temper of a sender's nominal verbal communication, changing and improving its interpretation.  It expresses - usually by means of punctuation marks - a person's feelings or mood and can include numbers and letters, as well.”

What if we never lived our lives with expression?  What if we never conjured up the idea of emoticons?  What if we were robots?  What if we had no muscular continuity connected to our souls?  My God we’d be wood.  That is not good!

As for me, I love the use of emoticons, but more than that, I love a real face with a real beautiful smile and twinkling eyes.  Yes sir, I’m all in for emoticons when it comes to writing and cyber expressions, but when it comes to flesh and blood and Imago Dei, nothing beats the real flesh and blood pathos of expressions from the human face.  Note it.  Take it.  Love it.  Leave it.  But it’s real.

Somewhere in the light of Over the Top ice cream and Holy Spirit denial, one can be lost in the power of a living emoticon.  Maybe I’m nuts, but I’d rather have the tender curve of a supple cheek, versus the digital structure of an unflinching emoticon.  Call me pathetically human.

You can’t smell an emoticon.  You can’t touch an emoticon.  You can’t hear an emoticon.  You can’t believe in an emoticon.  Thank God for the real Imago Dei found in the pulse of the human heart.

A soft cheek in the moon light is far better than a “winky face” on a digital page.  May the God of all emotion, love and humanity grant you more grace than any emoticon could ever deliver.

Sigh