Most of us are very good at making comparisons. We tend to compare ourselves with others on the basis of personality traits and human achievements, for example; but this can bring mixed results. 

If, on the one hand, we hold someone in high esteem for their consistent integrity and selfless caring for others, that can be a good thing, if it motivates us to strive to better ourselves, and even to learn how these laudable qualities are innate to us. On the other hand, if we allow ourselves to feel inferior because of another’s sterling character, that is not a good thing. Worst of all, if we see another as beneath us, that is not good at all—either for us or for them—because it hides and denies what God is and how God is expressed.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make comparisons. It simply means we need to turn to something higher than human personalities on which to make them. And the life of Christ Jesus is a good example of where to turn.

Jesus always looked to God for how he should see himself and others. He knew he was the loved Son of God, and he turned to God to understand what that meant and how to live that way. In fact, he knew that living as God’s Son—and seeing others as God’s sons and daughters—was his God-appointed purpose, and that staying true to this purpose would result in healing, redemption, and salvation for humanity. 

Those results alone, Jesus knew, could reveal his true, God-given identity and authority as the promised Messiah. One time, “the people gathered all around him. They said, ‘How long are you going to keep us guessing? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly!’ Jesus answered: I have told you, and you refused to believe me. The things I do by my Father’s authority show who I am” (John 10:24, 25, Contemporary English Version). 

Jesus expected his followers to also do the mighty works that he did by “[the] Father’s authority.” The writer of First John recognized that the authority to heal as Jesus did would be in realizing our own and everyone’s God-given identity and purpose as God’s sons and daughters. He said: “Think how much the Father loves us. He loves us so much that he lets us be called his children, as we truly are. But since the people of this world did not know who Christ is, they don’t know who we are. My dear friends, we are already God’s children” (3:1, 2, CEV).

The important thing is to know what God is like, so we can know what we are like as His children. Isaiah 40:18 asks an interesting question: “Who compares with God? Is anything like him?” (CEV). Well, we certainly can’t be gods, because there is only one God. But we can be like God in nature.

God is wholly good, infinite Spirit, and universal divine Love. So nothing evil, material, or unloving can be like God. If we are to see ourselves as God knows us, and as Christ Jesus knew us—as God’s sons and daughters—then we shouldn’t, and ultimately can’t, think of our identity in terms of human personalities with both good and evil tendencies, and both loving and unloving qualities. 

We can let our thoughts, words, and actions come into conformity with our true nature as God’s spiritual reflection.

We need to look to God, our creator, and get to know His undeviating goodness, spirituality, and lovingkindness. Then we can begin to know our true identity as including only His qualities. This true identity compares to God; that is, it reflects God’s nature. As we become better acquainted with God and with ourselves as God’s spiritual likeness, we can let our thoughts, words, and actions come into conformity with our true nature.

Mary Baker Eddy discovered and proved the divine Science of God and man underlying Jesus’ life and healing works. Throughout her writings, she used the analogy of a mirrored reflection to help us grasp and live our true identity as God’s reflection—and reap the healing results for ourselves and others. In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, she wrote: “Your mirrored reflection is your own image or likeness. If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also. If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in accord with yours. Now compare man before the mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection to its original. As the reflection of yourself appears in the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of God. The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love, which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation; and when we subordinate the false testimony of the corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see this true likeness and reflection everywhere” (pp. 515–516).

Experience over many years has brought into my life the practical results of learning God’s true nature, and my own and others’ true nature as His spiritual reflection. It comes through daily study of the Bible and Science and Health—and through accepting the fact that we are subordinate to God, not to matter or to material beliefs in sickness, sin, and death. Knowing the truth of God’s nature, and of our true identity and purpose as God’s perfect reflection, enables us to transcend the belief that we are imperfect human personalities that can compare ourselves to others.  

Knowing and loving God as our creator is a reliable standard for healthy comparisons. It makes it natural to see and love ourselves and others as God sees and loves us—as Jesus did. It also makes it easier to face our human faults and yield to Christ’s correcting and redeeming power, to pray and live as Christian healers, and to experience the healing results of divine authority and power. 

Truly, acknowledging our and everyone’s likeness to God is the one comparison that matters.

Barbara Vining
Editor