Press the arrow to listen to Mercy Me sing “Here with Me” while you read today’s devotion on excellence.

Scripture
Then they hammered out gold sheets and cut them into threads to be woven in with the blue and the purple and the scarlet material, and the fine linen, the work of a skillful workman. Exodus 39:3

Observation
I imagine a wiry man in a stuffy tent with mallet in hand thumping a chunk of gold. I can see him with the Egyptian version of a Stanley Knife meticulously slicing fine gold wires. His world is an ordered world measured in tidy millimeters.

Of all the people that God chose to trust with his most sacred building project, to create his home on earth, a symbol of heaven on the planet, were creative artists. That should make any artist swell with a bit of pride.

But it was not just any craftsman that God chose. He wanted those who did the “work of a skillful workman.” This was not just a matter of doing a good job, but an excellence the flowed from their hearts. It was an honour to be asked and an awe to see their small involvement create something so intricately immense as The Tabernacle. That entrustment brought heart-felt excellence.

Application
The call that God has given me should drive me to do my very best. Today I will not be hammering out gold foil, but I will be working with hearts. It is a delicate work. Just like a jeweler lightly fingering tinsel-thin gold and embroiderers slowly pulling gold threads, so I will speak words that could last forever. They need to be spoken like the work of a skillful craftsman.

Prayer
Father, today I ask for a craftsman’s heart in all that I do with you. Amen.