BICYCLE

The following is from another one of my blogs called, "Why Should It Change?" in which I've posted old devotionals I shared with Daddy way back from 2001. Many of these were posted on this "Come into an MK's Kitchen" blog back then. Since I was reading about this time period (The occurrence written about happened during the 1967 furlough in Warren, Michigan), and I know I won't be writing about this in Japanese, so maybe those who haven't read about it before would enjoy doing so now, and those of you who have seen it would be large-hearted enough to smile along with us anyway? Thank you.

-------------------------

The time I learned to ride a bicycle (3rd grade), we lived next to a huge parking lot that was a paradise to ride around in. I remember one afternoon, on my bicycle on the sidewalk about to turn the corner and come home, my “mental computer” jammed. I saw a post man—there was no e-mail; we wrote letters back then—walking in my direction. If I turned the corner, I would run straight into him. I COULDN’T!!! My brain froze. Instead of turning the handle, I let the bicycle plow on straight ahead…into the car parked at the curb!

Bonk. (Good thing my child’s bicycle wasn’t going very fast anyway.) The bicycle’s rubber wheels hit the car’s metal fenders, spilling me onto the grass. The mailman came running, questions flying.

“What are you doing? Are you all right? What happened?” 

“I…I saw you…I was going to turn the corner…But if I did, I knew I would run into you, and I didn’t want to do that, so I didn’t know what to do and so kept going straight” (like the time I stayed on the bus and went all the way to the terminal!) 

“Why didn’t you just put on the brakes?”

“I…yeah…uh…I didn’t think about it.” I didn’t know what to say, really.

I think he saw I wasn’t hurt (except my silly pride) and sent me back home reminding me to use the brakes next time. I can’t remember too clearly. That’s a memory I don’t often think about, try to forget, actually; don’t really know why I’m sharing it with you. Perhaps it’s to show if God can choose things this foolish to serve Him and to glorify himself—all He asks is that we say, okay God, YOU DO YOUR THING, because I’ve proven I can make a mess doing mine.