Everything On Loan

Ten years ago I bought a house. Maybe I should say, I took out a loan to buy a house. It was my first real house, a home with a foundation and a basement. I had lived in a trailer home park for sixteen years before buying the house. Even though I owned the trailer home, I still rented the land it sat upon. I dreamed of the day when I would own an actual piece of property: a home and a yard.

It took several years to find a house I liked. I knew I did not want a big expensive house.. I would not be able to afford it. Besides, I did not want to clean a big house. I do not like cleaning. I wanted a house with a garage so I would not have to leave my car sit outside during the Minnesota winters. I wanted a house with a decent, and dry, basement in which I could build a family room. I wanted a living room that was larger then the one in the trailer house. I just wanted a house that had a few features I was missing in the trailer park.

One day the real estate agent called me. She had a good idea about the type of house I was looking for. This house turned out to be a 28' by 40' one story home with a full basement and a detached one stall garage. It was located in the middle of the city, two blocks from downtown. It had two decent sized bedrooms, and a third room off the kitchen that could be used as a dining room, office, or extra bedroom. 

It was the basement that sold the house. There was a family room and a laundry room that were already finished. The family room was perfect! I wanted this house, so I stopped at the bank to check on a loan. They tried to tell me that with my salary I could afford a much bigger home. I told them I wanted to have some money left over after making a mortgage payment to enjoy the house. They gave me the loan.

I owned a house! Well, the bank and I owned the house. I would own it after thirty years of payments. I refinanced the loan a few years later and was able to knock about ten years off the payment schedule, and at a lower interest rate.

Even after ten years of "owning" this house, I still find it amazing that it is mine, that I own such a thing. It is my homestead, my dwelling, my castle. I have made several improvements to my castle over the years, putting on my little touches.

Then a funny thought occurred to me this summer. In less then ten years I will give the mortgage company my last payment and the loan will be payed off. Or so I thought. It suddenly dawned on me that even though I will have paid for the house, it is still on loan. In fact, everything I own is really on loan. My car, my furniture, my towels, and even my dvd collection. It is all on loan.

God, our heavenly father, holds the final mortgage, and he always did. As far as society is concerned I do own all this stuff, but I really do not when you look at the bigger picture. A fire could reduce it all to ashes. A tornado could turn it all to rubbish. A thief could steal it. Then I look at an even bigger picture. Someday, I will die. Suddenly, I will not own the car, the dvd's, or the house. Someone else will own it all.

God actually owns it all. He has loaned these things to me while I live on this earth. Someday, he will loan these things, and my home, to someone else. I suppose I better take care of things for the new "owner".

(By the way, that is not a picture of my home, but it is one from the city I in which I live. The house in the picture is much larger then my house.)