Apples to Oranges

Apples and Oranges
 
I really like apples and oranges although both have different characteristics.  Apples are rich in color and variations. They have thin edible skin, and can be sweet and juicy or tart and crunchy.  They make wonderful pies.  On the other hand, oranges almost all look the same. They are orange, although in Latin America we have eaten green oranges that were ripe. The skin is thick and bumpy. I suppose someone has eaten the skin, and definitely used the peeling as an orange peel zest in a recipe. The inside is sweet, sectional, squishy and very juicy unless the orange is aged. I personally have never made a pie out of an orange so the usage is primarily as a fruit and juice.  Many people have used these two fruits as an idiom in comparing things.  Poem Analysis stated “Comparing apples to oranges is used when someone is wanting to refer to the obvious differences between two things, a very popular idiom that’s used in everyday speech to emphasize incomparable items or experiences,”
 
Interesting the primary purpose of this idiom is in the context of comparing two things that have an obvious difference between them. Comparing is ever a constant issue especially for us women.  Most of us don’t admit how many times we compare ourselves to other women, compare our children to other children, our families to other families, our husbands to other husbands and the list can go on to even to one of the most insignificant item as our toenails. This practice is as old as scripture. In Luke 22, the betrayal of Jesus is unfolding. Jesus and the disciples have the last supper and Jesus knows the man who will betray him is at the supper.  The disciples begin to ask questions among themselves who might be the one.  However, in verse 24 the question takes a change of course. Luke 22: 24-27 24 A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. 25 Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. 26 But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. 27 For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.
 
The disciples were arguing who was the greatest among them!  Is that not just like what we do when we look at someone else and begin to ask … Is my hair longer than hers? Do I have more gray hair than her?  I wonder if my children are more successful than her children.  I am sure they have more money than we do because they can do more things than us.  Whew, that type of comparison can go on and on.  While Facebook has been great in “keeping” up with people we know, when someone has a baby, gets married, losses a parent etc, it has created for many of us an abyss. Oxford dictionary gives abyss one meaning as the “region of hell conceived of as a bottomless pit.  Is that not just a perfect picture? Satan wants us to be in discontent and dissatisfied with who we are, what we look like, where we live, how much money is in the bank, what our children look like and do and so much more.  It is a pit of comparison, dug by Satan himself, which is bottomless and when allowed in our mind, comparison torments us. 
 
Let me take this one step further.  Some of us question and compare God’s goodness to us based on what we see as His “blessings” to others.  Have we said…why are they able to get pregnant while I am barren? Why do I have to work and she gets to stay home with her children?  Why am I still single and my friends are married?  Once again the list can go on and on.  In Luke 21, the disciple Peter had an issue going on in his mind about “the beloved John” during the discussing of who was going to betray Jesus.  In verses 21-23 Jesus give a resounding response to Peter. 21 When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”22 Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” 23 Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?” The words; “what is that to you?” resonate strongly with me and what I get out of this is that I should not focus on the life of someone else. I have a different life and path.  We may all have some common elements like eating and sleeping, but that is about it.  My past, my present, my future, my story, my life, who He has created me to be is unique only to me. No one else has my fingerprints that God created just for me. There is no fair, equitable or perfect way to compare myself with anyone and when I do, the very act diminishes, in my mind, God’s creation of me and my story.
Psalm 139:14  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Matthew 10:30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Isaiah 64:8  Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Psalm 139:13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb
Psalm 139:1-24
1 Samuel 16:7  But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. 
You are valuable! God has created you.  In math, I remember that every number has a place value.  The more we moved to the left, the higher the value.  The more we moved to the right of a number the less value.  Keeping the same concept the more we move toward what God says about us, we increase in our understanding of our “place value” and how great that value is in His eyes.  However, the more we move away from what God’s Word says about us and look to the world, the more we decrease in our minds our value.  By looking at the world for value, we are chasing an illusion of what we think is valuable and not what God says in His Words is valuable. 
Dear one, embrace God’s value of you.  It is perfect and keeping our thoughts on His truth will bring peace to your heart and mind.
Blessings,
Karen