Years ago Art Linkletter made a true observation, “Kids say the darndest things.” I will add to this thinking, “they sometimes think the strangest things.” Hi there, time for another one of those famous “RABBIT TRAILS!”

Being the son of a preacher had an interesting way of coloring the way I looked at life, growing up. I remember one time so clearly it makes me laugh when I recall it. I was eight or nine and still living in the northwest panhandle of Texas. Now back in those days in that “neck of the woods,” most children that age had already received their first dirt bike or motorcycle that became a dirt bike. My case was the latter.

Somehow my parents had made a deal on a shiny red, 90cc Kawasaki motorcycle. I am sure they got a great deal on it because it was a street motorcycle that was never designed for the life it was about to live. It would be similar to seeing a Porsche 911 turbo with monster truck tires, or maybe a yellow school bus with a dragster parachute on the back. It was like a turtle on top of a fence post — out of place. Oh well, I think you are beginning to get the picture. Here was this sleek and shiny street bike with big knobby dirt bike tires.

Forgive me for getting ahead of myself, at the time of this story I did not know what was going on yet. All I knew was that dad had pulled me out of bed extremely early one morning and had me get dressed in my motorcycle play clothes. We had risen early many times to go fishing or to leave on a trip but never like this before. When I was dressed and ready, he took me on his motorcycle and headed for the banks of the local mud hole known as Lake Rita Blanca. This too was not unfamiliar territory, it was just the fact that it was so early.

Here is where the trail takes an interesting turn. The previous Sunday in Sunday School we had heard a lesson about how Abraham was told by God to take Isaac somewhere and make him a sacrifice to God. Being the son of a preacher and blurry minded due to the time of day, I actually thought that I was about to be a modern day Isaac. Remember, sometimes kids think the strangest things.

We arrive on the shores of Lake Rita Blanca just before sunrise and here was this shiny red motorcycle sitting there waiting for me. I must confess, I saw that bike as a ram caught in the bushes for me. It was so exciting, I had a motorcycle! OK, so the oversized dirt bike tire rubbed on the back fender, and the muffler drug on anything bigger than a squirrel on a right turn. But I had a “dirt bike”. After many parts had vibrated off or fallen off due to design flaws, it looked a little more like a dirt bike if not just a dirty bike!

So where does this rabbit trail end? Think about it this way. God designed man (and woman) in His image. They had perfect communion with God in the Garden of Eden. They were never intended to taken out of the Garden. They were the shiny red street bike meant for streets of gold not the dirt trails of sin. But as we all know, they chose to make modifications to God’s original design. They chose to leave the Garden and go dirt riding and we have all suffered from that design modification ever since.

I must tell you, I was so glad that my father had no intentions of sacrificing me that early Texas morning, but I am equally glad and eternally grateful that my Heavenly Dad did sacrifice his Son to take care of my willful design “sin” flaws. As I grow older, God’s grace just gets more and more amazing. How he takes the mess I have made of His original design, fixes all the parts I have broken and looks at me through the filter of Jesus’ blood and sees nothing wrong. Wow, how cool is that!

Happy hunting until we meet again on another rabbit trail. May God richly bless you and keep you in HIS love. If you would like to e-mail me, just click on my name at the bottom of the page.

Your fellow servant in HIS service, Tim Meyer