Money-back guarantee?

Our loved ones did not come with money-back guarantees. We did not buy them and we cannot trade them for newer models. This may come as a shock, but we do not own our loved ones.—Francis Frangipane, A House United, page 123

<idle musing>
A humorous way of saying that we are not God.

But, how often do we treat others as if we did own them? We take for granted their service, as if we deserve it. As a friend of mine likes to say, "You deserve to roast in hell. Anything else is a blessing, so treat it that way." But, without Christ in us, we can't. We are curvatus in se, as the reformers used to say—curved in on ourselves. It is only as Christ lives his life through us that we are able to extend beyond ourselves and love those around us.
</idle musing>