Air in the Tires

Trevor was happy. Very happy. He had a shiny, brand new bicycle. He never had such a nice gift in his whole life.

It was Trevor’s seventh birthday. He had learned how to ride the old bike in the garage, with his dad’s help. He had worked real hard, and was very careful with the old bike. Then, just like his dad promised, he got a new bike on his birthday.

Trevor rode his bike everywhere. He rode to school. He rode to the store. He rode all over town. People would see him coming and say, “There goes Trevor on his brand new bike.” Trevor was so proud as he rode and rode his bike everywhere.

But after a long time, Trevor felt something was wrong. It was harder to pedal his bike. He barely noticed the difference at first. But it was harder. Not only that, it was getting a little harder all the time. Even though Trevor pedaled as hard as he could, the bike just went slower.

Trevor started to worry. “Am I getting weak?” he thought. “No, I can still run and jump OK. Maybe something’s wrong with my bike.”

But try as he might, Trevor couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Finally he said to himself, “My Dad’s pretty smart. I’ll ask him.”

So Trevor went to his dad and told him about how his bike was getting harder to ride and was going slower. His dad said, “Well, let’s take a look.”

So they went outside and looked at the bike. His dad said, “Hmmm, I think I see the problem. Your tires are running out of air. When you ride a lot your tires slowly lose air. Nothing’s really wrong, you just need to do is go down to Bert’s gas station and put air in your tires. I’m sure Bert will be glad to help you.”

Trevor was relieved that the problem was so simple. And he was so happy that he hardly noticed how hard he had to peddle to get to Bert’s gas station.

When he got there, he didn’t see Bert. He looked all over. Then he thought, “Bert’s not here, but I’ve seen my dad get air a lot. I bet I could do it.”

And Trevor did just that. He found the air hose, and, since he was a very clever boy, figured out how to fill his tires all by himself. He had gotten his tires mostly filled, when he heard a man shouting.

“Hey, kid, get away from there! You’re gonna break something!”

Trevor looked up to see a strange man he didn’t know. The man was wearing overalls just like Bert, but he was not Bert. He was big and mean looking and angry. Trevor was surprised and scared. He dropped the hose and just stood there.

The man went on screaming, “What do think you’re doing. You’re too young to play around here. You get out of here now. If I ever see you here again, I’ll make you wish you were never born!”

It took a lot of courage for Trevor even to pick up his bike, but he did and rode away as fast as he could. He didn’t ever want to see that man again.

Trevor didn’t know what he did wrong, but he figured he must have broken something. He was afraid of what that man might do. He was afraid the man would tell his dad about it.

After a few days, Trevor was surprised but somewhat relieved. His dad didn’t say anything, so he guessed the man hadn’t told on him. Trevor sure didn’t want to tell. He could still ride his bike, although it was a little hard because he hadn’t filled the tires all the way up. Now he still rode all over town, except he stayed far away from Bert’s gas station.

And the tires eventually started losing air again. This time it didn’t take so long for the bike to be hard to ride, since the tires didn’t get full. Trevor loved his bike, but it got harder and harder to ride. Finally, Trevor gave up. Riding was just too hard. He put his bike in the garage, and just walked. He was also very sad.

One day, Trevor’s dad came to talk to him.

“Hi Trevor, buddy. Is something wrong? I haven’t seen you ride your bike, and you don’t look very happy.”

Trevor liked his dad, and he knew his dad loved him. But he didn’t want to get into trouble. He didn’t know what to say. Finally he said, “It’s too hard to ride.”

Surprised, his dad answered, “Didn’t you put air in the tires like I told you to?”

“Well, yeah, sort of.”

“What do you mean, sort of. What’s wrong, Trevor?”

Trevor couldn’t hold back any longer. He started crying. He had to tell his dad, even if he got into trouble. Between sobs, he told his dad the whole story.

Instead of getting angry, his dad said, “Trevor, I’m sorry you didn’t tell me this sooner. Let’s go have a talk with Bert and see what happened.”

Trevor was kind of scared, “What if that man sees me and gets mad at me?”

His dad said, “You let me worry about that.”

Trevor was still a little scared, but he felt safe with his dad. He knew his dad would make everything OK.

When they got to Bert’s gas station, they saw Bert and sat down with him in his office. Trevor’s dad asked him to tell his story to Bert. Trevor was still a little nervous, but he did OK since his dad and friendly Bert were there with him.

When Trevor finished, Bert said, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I hired this new guy a few weeks ago. But I had to fire him. He kept taking breaks and leaving the gas station alone. Not only that, he was mean, really mean. I lost a couple of customers because of him. I apologize. I won’t let it happen again. Can you forgive me?”

Of course, Trevor and his dad said they would forgive Bert, and they were still friends (and customers!). They went to get Trevor’s bike and Bert personally put air into the tires.

After that, Trevor was very happy again. He learned it was a really good idea to talk to his dad whenever he had a problem. And once again, he rode and rode all over town. One of the places he visited most was Bert’s gas station, and he never ran out of air again.^*

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^* Ephesians 5:18 "Be filled with the Spirit." The Greek for spirit is pneuma, which means spirit or air. Bikes have pneumatic tires — tires that are full of air.