There are many precious “first” moments in parenthood. Even though this is my second child, every “firsts” still feels as novel and precious and magical as my firstborn’s. And for me, the most precious “first” is that moment when the baby looks you in the eye for the first time and cracks her first smile.

Woori gave me her first smile when she was about 10 weeks old. It was such a surprising gift for me, because Tov didn’t smile until he turned four months.

But there she was, looking up at me, her round eyes folding like origami into crescent moons, her cheeks rounding, her toothless mouth curving into a soft laughter. I had been busy in my mind, as I always am, but when she smiled, every other thought flew out of my brain to allow space to wonder at this most beautiful, uniquely human expression: the genuine smile.

Babies look so serious most of the time. They yawn so seriously. They stare so seriously. They burp so seriously. And occasionally they look at you with an expression of disgust or confusion, like, where the heck am I? Who the heck are you?

But that’s what makes their first smile so astonishing and amazing. It’s the first sign that they recognize a human face. That they know how to peer into human eyes, your reflection glinting in their pupils, and meet you, soul to soul. Instinctively, guilelessly, they sense someone made in the same image as they, and they greet you with a smile of recognition, of delight. I think it might be the same sort of smile Adam gave Eve when God first brought her to him: What! Hello there! You’re like me! But not me. Who are you? I can’t wait to get to know you.

There is so much beauty and power in the life of a human being. Scripture says all creation— the sun and moon, the shining stars, the hills and seas, the wild animals and small creatures and flying birds— all worship and give praise to the glory of God.

But no creation reveal as much glory of God as the one and only being created in His image: Humankind.

You don’t have to be a parent to know this truth deeply. You don’t need to be a Christian to love humanity and see its goodness— in fact, some non-Christians do it better than professing Christians like me. But for me, because I can get so irritable and cranky and cynical, I need to experience being a parent of a newborn to remind myself of that truth, to witness that first smile, presented like a gift personally and only for me, and gasp. To gaze into this little human being’s eyes, so clear and innocent, and see God’s original creation, God’s own image. To tear up, because it’s just so dang beautiful there is no words to describe it except to weep helplessly at the magnificence of human life.

I write this the day after Election Day. I woke up to the official confirmation of Trump as our next president, but I went to bed already knowing he won. I thought I had been pretty apathetic about politics and the election, but I suppose I still have a lot of emotions buried inside me, easily triggered from memories of 2016 and 2020, from all the toxic news and social media content, the online and real-life comments I’ve read and heard for the past eight years.

So this morning, with images of Trump lifting his fist in triumph, those emotions frothed out.

“WTF is wrong with our country?” I texted my friends.

And by this I mean WTF is wrong with those people? And that one sentence exposes all the stereotypes, the tropes, the contempt and disgust and rage I have for people who think differently from me. They are flattened to images— images of my neighbors who hung “Get Back America!” flags on their balconies and front yard, neighbors who drove obnoxious, mega-loud pick-up trucks that fluttered humongous USA and Trump 2024 flags as they roared down the streets in a cloud of diesel fumes.

I was frustrated and exasperated and enraged, in part because I had no control at all. We were given two terrible candidates, neither of whom intrigued or excited me. I didn’t vote for either of them. My personal conscience didn’t allow me. And so, in that helplessness and lack of control, I felt nihilistic.

America will reap what she sow, I thought. Let her crash and burn for all she deserves. In that moment, I wanted people to hurt, to be disappointed, to despair, all so I can satisfy some weird, short-lived self-righteousness and masochism. I actually wanted to revel in the destruction of humanity.

And then it was time to feed Woori again, and as I nestled her on my lap, she gazed up at me and gave me a big, happy smile, even letting out a little squeal, so excited was she to meet eyes with me.

I smiled back. I laughed. She smiled even more and cooed back. She doesn’t speak words but we were communicating, on the most basic level, a most basic human expression: Hello! I see you.

Ah yes. I see you, image-bearer of God. I see you. And I see them. Thanks for the reminder. Thanks for opening my eyes again.