Experts

Watching an expert door their thing is incredible!  Examples include something as “simple” as cutting hair, though I know from personal experience that this simple task is not.  I still vividly recall my horror and fear in giving a mirror to a new friend after I has attempted a simple trim. 
 
Experts displaying their skills are all around us.  I close my eyes and recall the incredible experience of watching a great chief pay attention to seemingly unimportant details; only to discover a truly surprising experience arriving as the first bite hit the tongue.  I reflect on the awe created as I watched someone bring a new emotion to life through their expressions with acrylic and oils.  I ponder the images still haunting my mind, captured by one eye in a photograph. 
 
In each situation, there was an expert at work.  As I walk the streets of New York, I find experts all around me.  Police doing his and her thing, effortlessly accomplishing what would be impossible for me to do.  Subway drivers maintaining a fantastic attitude in the midst of boredom and customers complaining as things are totally out of their control.  Then there are the musicians who bring peace and joy to a crowd with little anticipation of long-term reward or short-term compensation.  It is incredible.
 
I think of others, the unknown hero who in the face of villain taken advantage of one who is weak, “chases them and comes through unscathed, his feet scarcely touching the path.”  (Isaiah 41.3) 
 
The strength, skills, and discipline shown by each in their own way are incredible.  One might think the number of experts is limited but life gives evidence that “they” are all around us.  There are no limits!  I look around today and wonder; where are the experts in compassion?  Where are the heroes of mercy?  Who are the champions of grace?
 
The answer is always the same; it is you and it is I.  We are God’s hands, eyes, ears, feet, and most of all hands.  We are the experts God is looking for.