I was driving home this weekend, and I began noticing the front of people’s cars. On the front of most cars here in America is a spot for what we call “vanity plates”. Whoever gave the name to this craze was right on the money. A good definition of vanity is “something worthless, trivial, or pointless”. Most vanity plates consist of sports team logos, business emblems, products, etc. Some people actually just leave the plate on from the dealer where they bought the car. I, for one, do not understand this one. Did they have such a good experience at the car lot that they want to tell everyone about it 24/7? To each his own.

I’m not knocking them altogether by the way – I have one myself. But what people put on their vanity plates really says a lot about what they care about, what they spend their time and money on. Some people doget religious with them, starting with the “God is my co-pilot” craze of the 1980’s. It wasn’t long before some astute auto-theologians corrected this blunder with “God is my PILOT”. Touche Mr. Co-pilot.

But I couldn’t help but think as I drove, how much time we spend on all these things that are represented on our vanity plates, and how much better our lives and our world might be if we spent that time with God and our families instead. Vanity plates, indeed….