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Psalm 89:6 NLT

'For who in all of heaven can compare with the Lord? What mightiest angel is anything like the Lord?'

Comparison is risky. I’ve spent time with so many who have disqualified themselves on the basis of a comparison they have made, invariably a false one. Every comparison made on ‘objective data’ is in fact limited by the basis upon which that data is both selected and presented. So, adverts with beautiful women are there to associate that level of so-called human beauty and sensuality with the product they are selling and more importantly, if I were to buy that product, somehow such beauty and sensuality will transfer to me. However, if skin deep ‘beauty’ and sexual arousal are low on my list of priorities, then the ads are a waste of my precious time.

My preferred comparison is with Jesus, a man whose appearance was not handsome according to Isaiah and who was despised and rejected by the majority who saw him on the cross. My objective is to see beyond the superficial attractions of this world and gaze on God. What a challenge and what an invitation. God is knowable, as tangible as any advertised and manufactured product.

It’s taken years of inner angst, doubt and disturbance to arrive at a place where my primary purpose in life is to discover more of God. I am dissatisfied with everything else on offer around me. If God is knowable, the inner light, the way, truth and life, then this is my ever-increasing desire.

There is nothing and no one who can hold a candle to the God of eternity, source of all life. As I have contemplated this God, desire for those things I once craved has all but fallen away. Insecurities remain, not least in that I don’t know precisely how God might sustain me beyond the material model that surrounds me. Yet, God’s love never ends, so I cannot ever reach beyond it.

QUESTION: How much do you compare your own life against that of others?

PRAYER: Radiant One, your light gives light to all that you have made and truly there is nothing to compare to you.