Deity

Every morning I wait for a sound. Its not a very loud one - but one that I hear clearly. A soft "thup" as the newspaper boy pushes today's paper through the outer grill and against the front door.

Today I opened up our Indian Express - and what did I see on the front page?

A statement about deity:

Now, let it be known that I am pretty much a red-blooded cricket fan (along with the other 999,999,995 inhabitants of our land - I understand they have identified at least 4 people in India who don't like cricket). I follow most of India's matches over the internet. I read the summaries the next day in the news-rags...

I also have a special place in my heart for Sachin Tendulkar. Being a Bombay Boy - he has made us proud. I still remember in the early 1980s reading in the Times of India about his special school boy knock. Playing in a Harris Shield match, Sachin and his school friend Vinod Kambli both scored over 300 runs and broke the world record for a partnership. In a time when we were starved for sporting success - things like that stood out.

Later, when visiting Germany in 1990 I remember being thrilled by reading a cast-off British newspaper on a railway platform - and learning that young Sachin had scored a century in his first tour as a player on the Indian National team. He was all of 16 years old at the time.

Yesterday - 20 years after Sachin first burst on the international scene - he did something no one has ever done before. He scored 200 runs in a one-day cricket match. Phenomenal. Both his continued quest for excellence - having already the most runs in test-cricket and one-day matches, the most centuries in both forms of the game - and the list goes on.

But to give him the title of the Deity?

When God revealed himself to Moses and the Israelites one of the things He was clear about was His unique status as God. There is no other. And that is for our own good. We need God to be better than us. Way better if we want to have any hope at all.

As amazing as Sachin is as a player. As nice as he seems as a person. He hardly has the characteristics of the infinitely loving, the totally beautiful, the source of all wisdom and goodness, the one who paints the sky ...

A look at recent shiny-happy 'perfect' sports-hero - and the unravelling of that sheen when woman after woman revealed his liaisons with them - is instructive.

Let us use the word "God" for our loving Father, for the awesome Creator, for the wonder-working Sustainer, for our tender Saviour, for the One who says "I AM."

Anyone else - even a stupendous clouter of the cricket ball - doesn't deserve that awesome title.