The other day, I asked my husband Brent and our younger son Ezra to list some phrases that they like and some that they don’t like. (I’m a real word-nerd, so these are the kinds of conversations they are frequently subjected to.) A few of the ones we liked were: “Can’t account for taste.” “Wouldn’t be happy even with a ham under each arm.” (That was my contribution for this category.) “Consider the source.” And Ezra’s favorite: “Let him cook.”
Phrases that we didn’t much care for were: “Stay in your own lane” and “Getting out of my comfort zone.” I also added: “To know her is to like her.” (After the publication of my first book, I had an article written about me and the journalist wrote, “To know her is to like her,” instead of the actual phrase “to know her is to love her.” I’m just a girl standing here, asking you to love me!) Another phrase I added to our DON’T LIKE list was: “It’s like comparing apples to oranges.”
According to the wizards of the internet, the phrase “comparing apples to oranges” comes from a collection of proverbs written by John Ray in the 1600’s. Strangely enough, he originally compared apples and oysters, which is a completely different situation.
Other languages have similar idioms used for supposedly disproportionate comparisons. In French, they compare apples to pears or cabbages to carrots. In Spanish, they compare potatoes to sweet potatoes, which are barely distinguishable. In Serbian, they compare grandmothers to toads, and in Romanian they compare grandmothers to machine guns and cows to long-johns. (Now we’re talking! Those are actually different!) My favorite is the Polish phrase which translates: “What does the gingerbread have to do with the windmill?” Which, you have to admit, is a valid question!
I wish I could say that making ridiculous comparisons is all in fun and only fruit-related, but we all know how problematic life and living with others can get when we spend too much time comparing ourselves to the people around us. If I only made decisions based on what others were doing, I would be in a world of trouble. It’s the lifestyle equivalent of ignoring the speed limit and instead deciding how fast to drive based solely on the speed of the strangers driving the cars around me. Absolute bedlam (and probably what I encounter most of the times that I drive on I-24)!
In Galatians 1:10, the Apostle Paul asks, “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” In other words, who are we trying to impress here...other people who seem to be better than us in various ways? If that's the case, then we're giving those other "better" people too much influence over the way that we see ourselves, the blessings that God has given us, and the paths that He’s provided for us in our suffering.
All too often, we mistakenly look to people to learn more about God—about His generosity, His justice, His mercy—but what we should really be doing is looking to God to learn where to aim our shot. Then we can be Christ to the people around us. No apples vs. oranges or carrots vs. cabbages. Just an eternal soul covered in a human shell trying to reflect Jesus to another eternal soul covered in a human shell, a fellow servant of Christ.
