I admit that I enjoy reading custom license plates and trying to figure out what they mean. My own plate is SL2SONT, of course standing for Scott L 2sont, a phonetic spelling our our last name. Of course, Janet has JB2SONT, after the same idea. We have a third car as well, one of those cars that we have fun with on weekends. It simply carries 2SONT – mainly because our son drives it also and so there is no need for specific initials. Back in the day when we needed to have four cars, the last one was 2SONT2, as in also.
Aside from name license plates, there are funny ones, location plates and by far and away my favorites, Bible verse license plates. This pseudo hobby started many years ago when Janet and I were driving late at night and I was way too tired to have been behind the wheel. We were in the middle of nowhere when a green Jeep appeared in my rear view mirror and flew past us on a two lane road. The plate read “PS9111.” We keep a Bible in the car and Janet looked up the verse.
It was a reference to Psalm 91:11 that is a psalm of safe passage for weary travelers. How timely! There’s much more to the story but suffice it to say that I was amazed that this event occurred at all! By the way, it’s not often that you find Bible verse license plates. They are few and far between.
Every once in a while, I locate one. This week, in particular, has been very hectic, and last week I finished teaching the books of Daniel and Esther for the spring season at church. We got rather deep into eschatology, the study of the end times and we spent quite a bit of time on God and His Son, Jesus. It was some complicated stuff! So imagine when I was returning from an appointment yesterday and spotted a car ahead of me that looked like it may have a Bible plate.
Yep! As I caught up, I clearly saw John17:3. That was it. Now in Indiana, there aren’t any plates with colons, so I was curious as to how the plate was made. Sure enough, it was clear that the owner has used a Sharpie to add the colon to the plate. Now to step two! What was so important that this Christian had to get a specific plate?
Well, I looked it up right away and that is our verse for tonight. Something very simple yet so very important. The apostle John, in his Gospel, tells us the words of Jesus in John 17:3, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” This sounds quite a bit like the more famous John 3:16. But you know what? John 3:16 has been used so much that people know it by heart. So they don’t take time to look it up! Yes, it’s the most important verse we have – the message of the Bible in one verse, but John had a way with words and his love for Jesus was effusive!
My encouragement for this evening is that Jesus died for all of us – in fact, the resurrection is what sets Christianity apart from other world religions. If Jesus had not been resurrected, it’s doubtful that Christianity would have survived. As it is, we serve a living God! My prayer is that we will all be bold to declare our faith and broadcast it any way we can – even on our license plates! Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…