Last night, my husband and I signed a three-year lease on a Hyundai Santa Fe. After white-knuckle driving it home--is there anything more nerve-wracking than the first ride home in a new vehicle?--my husband gave my boys the necessary lecture with all the appropriate exaggeration and emphasis.

"If you scratch it, you die."

Which got me thinking about life.

Because scratches are inevitable on lease vehicles and in life.

Some of life's scratches happen as we try to learn something new such as riding a bike. Some of them happen because we are breaking the rules. Like running through the school, slipping on water, and tearing open our left knees to the bone. Sometimes we inflict scratches on the playground when we've just had enough of being bullied. Sometimes we try to save an ungrateful cat from a tornado.

Maybe these things only happen to me. But, I don't think so.

Scratches, spills, dings, dents, dog hair--they are inevitable for my lease car and my life.

Preventable? Except for the dog hair, maybe.

Even so, we put lease wear care in our package. But might we accrue some charges in the end? Are there any guarantees? I have little doubt.

What about with life?

Will we accrue some charges in the end? Are there any guarantees?

I have little doubt.

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 NIV