Luke 19:32-36: in context

As Jesus approaches Jerusalem for the last time, he sends two disciples ahead to fetch a colt they will find tied, one that has never been ridden. They go and find it exactly as he said. As they untie it, the owners ask, why are you untying the colt? The disciples answer with the words Jesus gave them: the Lord has need of it. And the owners let it go. The disciples bring the colt to Jesus, throw their cloaks on it, set him on it, and as he rides toward the city the crowds spread their cloaks on the road before him.

The small hinge of the whole scene is a single sentence: the Lord has need of it. A man owns a colt, a thing of real value, and at those words he releases it to strangers. There is no long negotiation, no demand for security or payment; the owner hears that the Lord has need of his animal, and he lets it go. Whatever exactly he understood, he was willing to hand over what was his because the Lord had need of it. There is a searching question in that for everyone who owns anything. The things we hold, our possessions, our time, our abilities, our resources, are held on the understanding that the Lord may have need of them, and the disciple's posture is to release them freely when he does. It is easy to grip what is ours tightly, to treat our belongings and our plans as simply our own to do with as we please; but the owner of the colt models another way, a readiness to open the hand the moment the Lord's need is made known. What do I have that the Lord has need of, and would I release it as freely as this man released his colt, or would I hold on, reckoning it too valuable or too much mine to give? The Lord still has need of what his people hold; the question is whether we will let it go.

What do I hold tightly that the Lord may have need of, my possessions, my time, my abilities, and would I release it as freely as the owner released his colt at those words, the Lord has need of it?