The Ride of Life

I was unable to do anything to keep my son from hurting himself.

My oldest son, Gabe had learned only 2 days before how to ride his bike without training wheels. I could not have been prouder of him. I watched as he wiggled back and forth, trying to keep the rubber side down. Tears welled up in my eyes, as I was overwhelmed with an inexplicable pride. I was clapping, jumping, yelling and looking stupid…but it was my son.

He had this patented move that he would perform when he wanted to stop the bike. He would stop peddling and quickly jump off to the side and manually stop.

Going in a straight line became routine for him, but after a couple of days, it was time to learn to turn.

We loaded up the bikes and went down to the local high school. Wide open spaces, with no traffic due to the summer season. I went over the exact course he should take and where he should begin his turn. Off he went.

He was building up speed and I yelled to him to begin his turn. He did and gradually began turning back towards me. I noticed that he was really going fast and then it happened. He became fearful and tried his patented Fred Flintstone style of braking. Disaster.

Because of his high rate of speed he was unable to successfully dismount, but instead his momentum dragged him about 10 feet along the asphalt. His poor knees and elbows were bleeding. Wailing and crying ensued as I ran as fast as I could to pick him up off of the pavement. I carried him back to the car and doctored up his strawberries with the first aid kit. My job was to encourage and comfort, not to point out his poor choices.

I later thought that this is exactly the way it is with God. He cheers enthusiastically when we make the right choices and accomplish things on this earth. However, God leaves the decisions up to us. That is the way it’s been since the Garden of Eden. When we make poor choices, He watches in sadness, unwilling to disallow the consequences. It pains Him to watch us fall and hurt. But after our wrong choices and subsequent results, God is quick to pick us up and offer us the comfort and healing that only He can give.

Our God is a God who loves us, even when we make bad decisions. He is the perfect Father, and understands that rescuing us from poor choices teaches us nothing. Our Father is a compassionate Dad, and He alone offers restoration to the brokenhearted.

In this ride of life, we’re quick to wonder where God is during the consequence stage, unwilling to recognize that it was our choice that put us there. Trust that God will bring you comfort and complete healing…He will.