A teacher reflected on a trip that she took with her family:

A number of years ago I spent a summer teaching in Mexico. Both my children went with me. To pass the time as we drove, my 3-year-old son Larry watched for license plates. The trip to Mexico netted him plates from 24 states, and while we were there, he saw four more. So, when we started back, he was over halfway to having "collected" all 50. 

Our return trip was during the peak vacation season, and to top it off, we went through Yellowstone National Park – a license-plate collector's paradise. By the morning of the second day there, he had just one more state to go: Delaware. Larry became obsessed with finding a license plate from Delaware. When we stopped to see Yellowstone's magnificent sights, he didn't glance at them. He preferred to run up and down the parking lots, looking at license plates. Talk about stress! Talk about anxiety! You would have thought that his whole life depended on finding a Delaware license plate! 

When we stopped to eat in a cafeteria near Yellowstone Falls, my son begged me to let him look for license plates. “Please, I don't want to eat," Larry said. "Can't I just stay here in the parking lot?" "No," we told him, "you have to eat." So he went inside and ate as quickly as he could get the food down and then headed out to the parking lot. No sooner had we finished our meal, however, than Larry came bounding across the parking lot. "Come here! You've got to see it! You won't believe it if you don't see it!" All of us went running out – and there, just pulling out of a parking space, was a blue Volkswagen bus with Delaware license plates. In fact, we got a picture, and even today, a decade later, when we look at our Yellowstone pictures, that's the picture that tells more about what we did in Yellowstone than anything else. *

How could one who has the opportunity to see the magnificent sights of Yellowstone pass the time looking at license plates?  Granted, a child may not have the appreciation for the beauty of nature, but this essay helps us evaluate our priorities in life.

Many entertain themselves looking for proverbial license plates while missing out on the beautiful and most important things of life.

The Apostle Paul gives us a better perspective on how to live our lives: “We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

In the end, what matters most is our relationship with God.  This relationship gives us the proper focus for our lives now and the key to eternal life in heaven.

Even though we have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, God loves us and sent His one and only Son to save us (Romans 3:23; John 3:16).

God will save and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7-9).

Don’t miss the most important things in life by looking at license plates.  Set your sights on Jesus.  Only He can give you the abundant life now and eternal life to come.

-- David A. Sargent

* From Signs of the Times, August, 1992, p. 12, as shared in www.sermonillustrations.com.

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

Archived issues of Living Water can be viewed and accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org