My six-year-old son has never been too interested in learning to ride a bike without training wheels.  When he was five he would watch other kids do it and say, “I think I’ll try that when I’m six.”  After he turned six, he would see other kids riding their bikes without training wheels and say, “Mm, I think I’ll try that when I’m seven.”

But one day some friends of ours gave us a hand-me-down bike that had almost never been ridden.  When my son saw it, he was so excited, but also sobered and determined.  He wanted to ride this beautiful new bike more than he cared about falling.

He went inside and got on long pants and a long sleeve shirt (important for crashing well) while I adjusted the bike to fit him.

We have a lot of mulch in our back yard, so before we went to the park across the street, I helped him practice falling off his bike in the mulch so he could face his fear head on and see that it wasn’t so bad.

His excitement and determination was full on when we got to the park across the street.  At first I would help him get going and help him stay up, but little by little I let go a little more until eventually in short spurts he was riding on his own.  He crashed a lot that first day, but almost every time he veered off into the grass and crashed really well.  Even when he got hurt, he would cry a little bit, want a hug, and then want to get back on.

By the next day, he was riding on his own for short distances that kept getting longer and longer.  A couple of times I heard this adorable little person pedaling, steering, and staring ahead of him while saying to himself, “I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.”  By the end of that day he was really riding and by the end of the next day he was riding everywhere – on the path, off the path, up and down grassy hills and everywhere.

It is hard to describe the delight, pride, wonder, and joy that I felt throughout all of this – watching him stretch his wings, try something hard and not give up, and find a new-found freedom and wonder.  It was amazing!

I couldn’t help but think this is how God must feel as God watches what His children do with the freedom and abilities God has given us – all the beautiful, creative, inventive, and daring things.   Perhaps this is one of the truest reasons why we are here and why we have been given all that we have – to do and to become, and to create … and to allow God to delight in our living.

May we all live in such a way that we make God feel the way I did during those afternoons in the park with my son.