A Belated Thank You

“One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.  He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him — and he was a Samaritan.  Jesus asked, ‘Were not all ten cleansed?  Where are the other nine?  Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ ”  Luke 17:15-18 (NIV)

Last week I fell off my bicycle.  I had actually been expecting it for a while.  Up until recently I used my bicycle as my main transportation, riding it to work, to my college classes, to the grocery store, and even to the doctor’s office once.  While I ride less now, it is usually for longer distances and along roads where the motorists drive too fast and might not even see a bicyclist.  I always figured that sooner or later I would take a tumble trying to avoid a full-on collision with an automobile.  It didn’t happen quite that way.

I was riding in Old Sacramento when it happened.  It was a silly mistake really.  I was riding parallel to some railroad tracks set into concrete.  I tried to cross over the tracks and didn’t take a strong enough angle between my tires and the tracks.  My front tire got caught against the rail and the bike went down from under me.  I went over the handle bars and my feet instinctively tried to run.  I just couldn’t run fast enough to get my feet under me and eventually I took a roll and came to rest on my hands and knees.

The palms on both my hands were scrapped up a little but I was feeling ok.  I got the chain back on the front gear and climbed back on my bicycle.  Then I rode the rest of the way to the store where I was headed and cleaned up in their bathroom the best I could.  I found what I had come to buy and returned home without any more incidents; my hands a little sore and my palms a little bloody but in otherwise good shape for flying off a bike.  Even at Friday evening prayer at Crossroads that night I didn’t think about it much, except to tell the story like some sort of hero.

It wasn’t until late that night, nearly ten hours after it happened that I stopped to think about the reality of my experience that day.  I could have landed a little different and broken an arm, or both arms.  I could have rattled my head inside my bike helmet and seen two of everything for a while.  I could have messed up my hands badly enough to make working at a computer, my livelihood, painful.  I could have broken the bike and had to walk home several miles.  A lot of things could have gone badly that afternoon.

It was during that realization of what could have been that I remembered I hadn’t talked to God about it.  So I got out of bed and got down on my knees to thank Him.  I should have shared with my friends at church how much God had done for me that day.  I should have prayed immediately after it happened to thank God for guardian angels.  I suppose it is good that I at least remembered to give thanks on the same day I was blessed.  I wonder how much more God would be able to bless me if I was quicker to give thanks and share His blessings with people around me.  Definitely something worth meditating about for a while.

[PhotoCredit:Marcin Wichary]