Redemption and The Ol’ Blue Goat

Wanting to add some variety to my workout schedule I decided to add some cycling. Now, I wasn’t interested in spending mega bucks for a new multispeed-just-down-shift-and-pedal-faster-up-the-hill bike. Down in the corner of my basement was my old bike…really old bike. I got this bike second hand when I was around 9 or 10 years old (and I’m 59 now). So it is at least 50 years old. This is an old, single speed, wide tire, “New Departure” coaster brake bicycle. This old bike and I have a lot of memories. It has been through just about every permutation a bike could go through in 50 years. High rise handle bars, banana seat (leopard pattern no less), sissy bar, drop handle bars, skinny racing seat, fenders, no fenders, streamers on the hand grips…you name it, it’s had it. It has been just about every color in the rainbow, though my favorite was a metal flake candy apple red I painted it in the late 1960’s. We had great downhill coasting contests with friends, it took me to my first job every day after school, it briefly delivered newspapers. It was a companion on many an adventure down dusty gravel roads, snow packed streets, fording mud puddles and small rivers. It was also the source of some real pain, like the wreck that left my right elbow skinned nearly down to the bone (at least as I remember it) leaving my mother no alternative but to pour merthiolate directly on the injury to try and prevent infection. It has a few scars of its own, the fork has a rather ugly weld where I bent and cracked the fork when I ran into a parked car one day circa 1970.

Now I said it was in the corner of my basement. More precisely it was in the corner of my basement…in a box. I had taken it apart years ago planning on fixing it up and left all the parts in a box. All the bearings, chain, sprockets, coaster brake, wheel hubs, fork, frame, all in pieces. I mean there wasn’t any two pieces that were put together. I wasn’t even sure if it was all there! My wife was on a rant to clean out the basement so I had to do something with it. So I stripped the frame and fork down to the bare metal, fresh primer, sanding and a shiney coat of blue gloss paint. The rusty wheel rims were sanded, treated with preventative, primed and painted a flat black. All the bearings and races were dutifully cleaned and repacked with grease. When it was time I put it all back together, inflated the tires, found a used straight mountain bike handlebar, put on new “ergonomic” grips, added a mirror and lights and new seat. A few adjustments and off we went. It really is true, once you learn to ride a bike you never forget.

I call it the Ol’ Blue Goat because it is old, blue, and can go anywhere. Road, trails, snow, mud, rain, up, down, and over. It gives me a real workout since I can’t shift on the hills, I just have to gut it out to get to the top. My legs scream at me sometimes on the hills, but so far I haven’t walked it. I don’t ride it because it’s pretty or easy, in fact, I ride it for just the opposite reason…it makes me work all the harder; and I just like the thought of riding my old bike again that saw me through my childhood and adolescence before cars became a reality.

You might say I redeemed it. It was old, rusty, broken, useless pieces in an old box stuffed forgetfully in the dark recesses of the basement. I “bought” it back with time and sweat, and even a bit of blood from barked knuckles from a slipped wrench. Sometimes our lives can be like that; in pieces, scarred and rusty, wasting away. But God has already chosen us, and wants us “back together”.  He purchased our redemption through His Son on the cross (Ephesians 1:7 and Colossians 1:13-14), and by the power of His resurrection can “put us back together”. There may be some scars, just like that old weld on the fork of the Ol’ Blue Goat, but that doesn’t make us any less desirable to Him. Regardless of how storied the past may be, the very Creator God of the universe can redeem our lives, our time, our broken relationships, our hard heart, and make us whole again.