Excellence is more than not being deceitful or slipshod. It means doing everything "heartily as unto the Lord" (Colossians 3:23). In his book Lyrics, Oscar Hammerstein II points out one reason why, a reason Christians have always known:
A year of so ago, on the cover of the New York Herald Tribune Sunday magazine, I saw a picture of the Statue of Liberty... taken from a helicopter, and it showed the top of the statue's head. I was amazed to see the detail there. The sculptor had done a painstaking job with the lady's coiffure, and yet he must have been pretty sure that the only eyes that would see this detail would be the uncritical eyes of seagulls. He could not have dreamed that any man would ever fly over this head. He was artist enough, however, to finish off this part of the statue with as much care as he had devoted to her face and her arms and the torch and everything that people can see as they sail up the bay...
When we are creating a work of art, or any other kind of work, let's finish the job off perfectly. The apostle Paul promised our Lord will do the same when He said "I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:4b-6 NIV).
Let us strive for excellence, for you never know when a helicopter, or some other instrument not at the moment invented, may come along and find you out.
