Yesterday I took off from work and thought I would take care of a couple of things which I have been putting off for some time. One of them was to get my son Jameson his driver's license. The other things I needed to do were to get my cars registered and to get a driver's license myself. Getting a driver's license for my son was easy, the other two were difficult. In fact I was not able to get a license or register my vehicles.
Supposedly I do not have the right documentation to receive a driver's license in the state of Illinois. I ran into the same problem when I went to Arizona and back to Texas. It seems that you need to have several types of documentation to prove you are a citizen of this country. I know there is no way that those who are undocumented aliens, illegal aliens, or non registered immigrants, however you want to look at it are driving cars legally here. How do they get anything without the proper documentation, but that is another post.
It seems that I have to prove that I am indeed a citizen of the United States and of Illinois before they will give me a license. So I went armed with my social security card, which does not have a photo ID on it. I had some recent mail delivered to my house. I had my Texas Driver's license. My car registrations and several other documents that pretty much prove who I am. However, I did not have a birth certificate to prove I was legal. Okay, I have a birth certificate, but I did not have it with me. And of course they will not take a copy of a birth certificate, it has to be a birth certificate with a raised seal, so that they can make a copy of the birth certificate. Did they even have raised seals when I was born?
The thing that gets me about all of this is that I did the same thing in Texas. In other words they issued me a license because I proved I was a citizen of the United States, but now Illinois does not believe I am a citizen of the United States. As far as registering my car, I have to provide the name of the banks that hold the title to my car. I understand that they need to issue an Illinois title to the loan company, but still I think we sometimes go overboard. The lady said that having my Texas registration was not enough, because I might have sold the car in Texas. Of course my little pea brain said "why would I want to register a car that I do not own or am not paying for?" Sometimes I think our government makes things harder than they need to be.
Needless to say I will need to go back with all the documentation at a later date and go through the whole process again. I will have to locate an official birth certificate so that I can prove that I am actually a citizen of the United States.
Which brings me to another topic. The Bible says that my citizenship is actually in heaven. The question I must consider is "how do people know that I am a citizen of heaven?" I mean after all I don't have a birth certificate that has a raised seal stating that I am a citizen. How do I prove to others that I am indeed a citizen of heaven? Paul stated in 2 Corinthians 1:22 that God "set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." And then again in Ephesians 1:13-14 Paul writes "having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. . ." So we actually do have a seal placed upon us that proves we are children of heaven. Later Paul will say that God's Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are indeed the children of God.
I like the idea of the Holy Spirit being a seal on my life that affirms me as a citizen in the kingdom of God. However, how do others know for sure that I am a citizen of the kingdom of God? The teachings of Jesus might help us with this question. Jesus said the way that others will know that we are his disciples and therefore citizens of heaven is by the way we love one another. Check it out in John 13:34-35 if you do not believe me. John will later write in 1 John 3:15 that if we do not love one another then we are not really citizens of the kingdom.
So the question you must ask yourself is "How do others know that I am a citizen of heaven?" How are you doing in demonstrating love toward others might help to answer that question. I hope I can eventually validate that I am a citizen of the United States, but to be honest I am more concerned that I validate that I am a citizen of heaven. Once I prove to Illinois I am a legal citizen, I want have to worry about it any more. But proving I am a citizen of heaven is something I must demonstrate everyday. I am glad my citizenship is in heaven, now I just want to live my life as proof of that fact.
No comments:
Post a Comment