My hail-damaged car was declared totaled by the insurance adjuster, so off I went in my rental to find and buy a different car.** When speaking to my insurance agent over the phone, I was told to bring in the title of my surrendered car along with a photo ID in order to collect my coverage check. I drove home from work feeling sure that I knew where the title was, but when I opened the envelope I was expecting to find it in, it was not there. I pressed down a wave of panic, searching diligently until I found it.

This experience made me think about the importance of paper documents – and why we keep some and throw others away. Though our world has become increasingly filled with digital replacements (and some say eventually everything will be digital), many of the most important documents in our lives are written or printed on paper or some form of paper/plastic.

Car titles. Passports and drivers licenses. Leases and contracts. Wills and power of attorney papers. Birth, marriage, and death certificates. Insurance cards. Diplomas. Letters of recommendation. Hand-written notes from those we love or respect.

The above are not necessarily valuable because of what they are written or printed on. They are valuable because of what’s represented in that writing.

Ownership. Identity. Promises. Trust. Final wishes. Life, love, and leaving. Protection. Achievement. Good faith. Relationships.

The same holds true for a printed book. I could go and buy any new Bible or a copy of Great Expectations from the bookstore. But the feeling I’d have in picking up those new copies is not the same as the one I have while holding my grandfather’s worn Bible or my friend’s favorite copy of Dickens. The feel of holding the paper copies in my hands is comforting, both for the texture and smell of old leather and cloth covers – but even more so because of the people or memories they represent to me, and the solid writing found in these books.

This is what key written documents do: help us to hold the value of all life, and of our own life, in our hands.

And this is what well-written words do: help us to consider lives and thoughts of the past and present and think of how we will live in the present and the future.

The next time you look at or hold something hand-written or printed that is valuable to you, consider these words. Take a moment to be grateful for what you own, what you have been entrusted with, the people you love, and the blessings you have been given. Let the tangible remind you of the intangible and the unseen.

**Special thanks to Marc Alvarado and the staff of Dingman’s Collision Center, Aaron Stockton and State Farm, Andy Larson and his colleague Jean of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Quincy Hunt and the team at Beardmore Subaru for helping me through the maze of my car replacement process. God bless you all.