Do You See What I See?

Today I participated in a MidAmerican Energy Audit for my home. Let me tell you, it was a lot more than a 15 minute visit glancing at the attic and crawl space for insulation needs. This auditor looked at every single light bulb in my house, shower heads, and even pointed out a tiny spider web on my basement window that showed evidence of "infiltration". 

As I adjusted to this long process, which included changing out 13 of the light bulbs, putting foam around pipes, changing a shower head, and a new surge protector, I decided to do some online Christmas shopping at the kitchen table. He shows up with a new thermostat "much easier to program and use" and proceeded to take out the old and put in the new. That's when he uttered the most famous line of the whole visit... "Don't forget to paint behind your thermostat."  

Unable to control my surprise and laughter, I couldn't help but ask, "In your job, doing this day in and day out for eight years, how many people have you known that have painted behind their thermostats?" 

"None." He replied. 

"But you?" I asked. 

"Yes." he said.

I could go on about how he personally runs an energy audit on his appliances each year (Really?!), but for the sake of this blog let's just point out the obvious... Cory has been trained to see what most of the rest of us never give a moments thought to. 

It made me wonder what I am trained to see. 

Over 2000 years ago, wise men saw a unique star in the night sky. It struck them in such a way that they were compelled to leave their home land and travel west to worship the king that was born. 

After today's visit from Cory, I can promise that I will never look at a thermostat the same way.

I also hope I never look at a night sky of stars the same way. May my life be such that I lead others to see the amazing light that testifies of a king born here on earth. Immanuel. God with us.