Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

(Colossians 3:2 NIV)

While grading science tests for her third-grade class, a teacher came across an answer she wouldn’t soon forget. The question was simple: “List the three states of matter.”  Most students gave the expected answers — solid, liquid, and gas.

But one student gave as his answer, “North Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky.”

The teacher smiled and wrote in the margin: “I’m looking for the states of matter, not the states that matter!”

Let’s be honest, who can argue?  For some people, those are the three states that matter!

It’s funny how easily the meaning of a word can shift — how “matter” can go from being a scientific concept to something deeply personal.  What “matters” to us often reveals what’s in our hearts.  And the truth is, we all have our own “states” that matter: the places we come from, the people we love, the memories we cherish, the traditions we cling to.

But Scripture invites us to lift our eyes higher. In Colossians 3:2, Paul calls us to “set [our] minds on things that are above.” That doesn’t mean that earthly things don’t matter — they do!  Our families, our work, our communities are all gifts from God.  But our ultimate focus and our deepest loyalty belong above — not in any state, status, or circumstance we claim as our own. 

That student had a perspective that didn’t quite match what the question was really asking. Sometimes we do the same thing spiritually. We get so focused on our immediate concerns and our earthly attachments that we lose sight of the eternal reality that gives everything its meaning.

When Jesus taught us to pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” he was inviting us to live with a heavenly view.  Heaven isn’t some distant, disconnected realm — it’s the lens through which we’re meant to see everything around us.

So, no matter which state you call home, remember that what matters most is not where you’re from, but where you’re headed.  “Set your minds on things that are above.”

Prayer: Father, help me keep my heart set on the things that truly matter — loving you, serving others, and seeking the things above.  Remind me that, wherever I live, my true home is with you.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

Alan Smith
Reprinted with permission from Alan Smith’s Thought For the Day