Price Tags

While sitting in the doctor's office recently I came across the current issue of The Atlantic magazine. (That in itself is amazing. A magazine in a waiting room that wasn't at least two years old!) What caught my attention was an article concerning our price-tag society which pointed out that almost everything is for sale. For example...
*A prison-cell upgrade in Santa Ana, California is available for $90 a night. Nonviolent offenders can pay for a clean, quiet cell with no riff-raff to bother them during their stay.
*Access to the carpool lane while driving alone for $8. Several large cities such as Houston and SanDiego offer this service to avoid congestion in carpool lanes.
*Your doctor's cellphone number in order to get same-day appointments. This costs anywhere between $1,500 and $25,000 per year. It might have been worth it to call him and ask why I was sitting in his waiting room when it was past time for the appointment.
*The right to immigrate to the United States for $500,000. It's a bit steep but foreigners who invest the money and create at least 10 full-time jobs in an area of unemployment can get their green card for permanent residency.
*In South Africa you can purchase the right to shoot an endangered black rhino for $250,000. Their logic is that killing off a limited number of these animals will give ranchers an incentive to raise and protect this species.
In short, we can buy almost anything this world has to afford. The article stated that this trend did not happen overnight but economics have worked to create these opportunities.
While thinking over this, I realized that's the way we usually arrive at whatever situation, good or bad, we find ourselves in. When it comes to falling away from God, we rarely do it suddenly. We don't usually wake up one morning and decide this will be the day that I turn my back on the Creator. It usually evolves.
Here's the great news. Even though we may realize how far away from God we've gotten, He hasn't moved! He is still there waiting for us to turn back to Him. The word is repent, or regret what we have done. And the Heavenly Father welcomes us back with loving, open arms.
Here's something else to take from this article. While we can buy almost anything today, one thing that's not for sale is our salvation. It's a free gift just for the asking. Eternity with Christ. You can't put a pricetag on that!