Hey, friend, welcome to today's word of encouragement from the Our Daily Bread Devotional.

The reading for today was written by Dave Brannon, and it's titled, And Seven Others.

Tragedy struck near Los Angeles in January 2020 when nine people died in a helicopter crash.

Most news stories began something like this.

NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others lost their lives in the accident.

It's natural and understandable to focus on the well-known people

involved in a horrible situation like this, and the deaths of Kobe and his precious teenager

Gigi are heartbreaking beyond description. But we must keep in mind that in life's big picture,

there's no dividing line that makes the seven others,

Peyton, Sarah, Christina, Alyssa, John, Carrie, and Ara, any less significant.

Sometimes we need to be reminded that each human is important in God's eyes.

Society shines bright lights on the rich and famous. Yet fame doesn't make

a person any more important than your next-door neighbor, the noisy kids who play in your street,

the down on his luck guy at the city mission, or you. Every person on earth is created in God's

image, whether rich or poor. No one is favored more than any

other in his eyes, and each is in need of a Savior. We glorify our great God when we refuse to

show favoritism, whether in the church or in society at large.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from James, chapter 2, verses 1 through 4.

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.

Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring in fine clothes,

and a poor man in filthy clothes also comes in.

If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say,

...