Bicycle wreck

It seems Little John was going home to spend the night with his friend. He didn’t have his bicycle with him that day so he jumped on the carrier on the back of his friend’s bicycle and hung on to the bicycle seat. Those two boys were forever working on their bicycles trying to make them as speedy as they could. They had oiled the differential on the back wheel making the brakes very sensitive. The road they were on was the main road in the community but it was newly graveled and not paved as it is today. And as they went flying down the hill, Little John’s friend applied the brakes a bit too hard. The rear end of the bicycle slid first one way and then the other. Little John was so frightened, he hung on for dear life while his friend went flying over the handlebars plowing into the gravel, sliding several feet on his tummy and knees. The bicycle fell over in front of their teacher’s house and sent Little John sliding along on his knees skinning them also.

Meanwhile, their teacher, who was inside her home when she heard the commotion, raced to the door, jerked it open and saw the two boys lying on the gravel. She started toward them,

“Oh my goodness, boys, are you hurt?” she yelled.

By this time, both boys had scrambled up, not wanting to let their teacher think they weren’t tough.

“Oh, no, we’re fine ain’t we, Little John?”

“Yep, just got a little skinned knees is all,“ Said Little John as he wiped the gravel from his britches legs.

As the teacher came closer, Little John’s friend happened to glance down and realized he was standing there facing his teacher with the whole front of his jeans literally hanging in shreds. He was so embarrassed he could have just died right there. He quickly turned to Little John,

“Uh, don’t think we’ll be able to ride at bicycle home so you push it on ta my house. I’m just agonna go through the field here ‘stead of down at road and I’ll meet ‘cha there,” Little John’s friend said,

“Oh, and, Little John, tell Mom to dig me out an old pair of britches and we’ll work on my bicycle when I get home, okay?”

Little John glanced at his teacher and was sure he saw a smile on her face. He hoped it was just a happy smile because they weren’t hurt and not a snicker because of his friend’s shredded britches.

The boys had laughed and laughed when they thought they were outsmarting their teacher in an earlier incident. They were disrupting classes, scaring the cattle and just generally upsetting the kids who had gone to school that day. Now the tables were turned. After realizing nothing but their pride was hurt, teacher had the last laugh at their expense.

Have you ever done something and had the tables turned on you?

“You have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out” Numbers 32:23. The actual meaning is “you will suffer for your sin.”

I’m not saying that Little John and his friend suffered skinned knees and torn britches because they blew their bugles during school time. But, I know both boys knew they were being disrespectful of their teacher and that skipping school was not the right thing to do. And, just perhaps while both boys were walking home from their accident, the thought crossed their minds that maybe, just maybe, aside from oiling that bicycle a bit too much, skipping school wasn’t the best idea they ever had either.