Ownership?

I pulled into my neighborhood today after grocery shopping and I noticed that I was driving in the center of the road and I heard in my memory one of my parents say rather snippedly, "Get over!  You don't own the road" because that's what they'd always say when someone was too close to the line, or over it:-).
    I don't own the road.  That made me think, "What do I really own anyway?"

    My husband and I have purchased a few items lately, pretty big items for us.  A truck.  A TV stand.  A chair.  All of these items are used.  All of them with some marks of usage.  None of it, by any means, perfect.  Sometimes I get frustrated because nothing we have purchased in a good long while has come directly out of the box.  We do not get to tear open the plastic and remove the styrofoam:-).  Most times, I'm okay with not doing that, but sometimes the smell of NEW taunts me.  As I was getting out of our truck today, I made note of the small stains left from the previous owner on the drivers seat, and then I thought of this story...I think Madeleine L'Engle tells it...about how she knows a family (or perhaps it was her own family) that whenever they purchased a new car, they would bring it home, get a hammer, and put a ding in the bumper, because they knew it was going to happen anyway and it was going to be okay:-).
   Our TV stand--a few pieces of chipped wood.  The chair--fabric worn.  The truck--tiny bruises.  It's going to be okay.

   I can't say I always operate with this in mind, but I do like to (as often as I can remember) shove my thoughts on over to the idea that I do not. own. a thing.  And it's not so I can shirk responsibility (although at one time that might have suit me fine).  Nope, instead I pull down from the shelf a good old-fashioned "stewardship".  I supervise, I am responsible for, I act in administration, I attend, I look after. I am the "charge" of my life.  It's not the, "Well, it's my life and I'll do with it what I please."  It's the "Not even this is really mine.  It is a gift I have for such little time, so how am I treating it?  What does it look like to you, Lord?"  This goes for my marriage, my work, my friendships, my jewelry, my jackets, my home, my heart, and maybe even my writing:-).
  I do want to take good care of the things we have-shiny or thread-bare, abstract or literal, new or used and everything in between.  But I also hold  these gifts with a light hand, because it is in their nature (our nature) to get bumped around and/or create our own damage--minor dings or totaled. 
It might best be called a temporary, but honorable, stewardship mixed with a whole lotta grace kind of life:-).