One of the first true freedoms you experience as a kid growing up is your first bike. It becomes your transportation to explore the world... or at least the local neighborhood! All the kids in my neighborhood had bikes, and we roamed like packs of unwashed hooligans with torn jeans and bloody knees. We stuffed playing cards in our spokes and chewed on black licorice sticks as we rode around looking for the next jumping contest to break out. It was magic!

But to a kid, a bike is more than transportation, it becomes an extension of your personality. Everybody's bike was as unique as the person who rode them. Stingrays, 10 speeds, mountain bikes, BMX, cruisers... everybody had something a little different, and they all had their strengths and weaknesses. This is where the idea for the PURPLE BICYCLE came from. Just as a bike might wish it had the abilities of a different make or model, so might a person tend to overlook how truly unique God has created each one us and long for someone else's gifts and talents, color, or ethnicity because they seem better than ours.

It's a simple story, but one we all need to be reminded of from time to time.