Every year, a group of 50 to 75 riders bundle up, saddle up, and brave the cold for a 50-mile journey to Anderson South Carolina for our annual New Year’s Day Ride. Various clubs and independent riders join us as we ride, sit down for a time of fun and fellowship, and share a meal of hot wings to celebrate the dawn of a new year.

Last year, with my stepson riding his bike for the first time, one of my granddaughters happily rode in the car with her mom and then met us at the restaurant. Oakleigh is a beautiful, spunky, 3yr old who melts the heart of anyone around her. While she is a little shy, she has been around motorcycles since birth and has no fear of bikes or bikers.

At the restaurant, there sits one of those machines where you grab a joystick and try to drop a claw onto a ten-cent stuffed animal, which costs and arm and a leg to actually get one. Oakleigh saw it as soon as she walked in…

While we were waiting on our food, her dad went over and wasted $10 trying to get her anything he could, but he failed. Then, she looks up at me and says, “Pop-Pop, come on!” 

Can’t say no, so here I go! 

After a few tries, and another seven or eight dollars, I finally won some kind of stuffed creature that made her happy. She wrapped her arms around it and grinned, then trotted off to show her mom and dad. I was ecstatic! I stuck my chest out like I had won some great victory and strutted back to the table. 

After what seemed to be less than ten seconds, she handed her mom the toy, grabbed my finger, and said again, “Pop-Pop, come on!” Apparently, she didn’t think she was done yet. I mean, that glass box was FULL of those things, and she wanted more!

Before I had the chance, bikers started forking out dollar bills! Oakleigh’s dad, complete with a handful of cash, walked her back to the machine. A few minutes later, here she came, smiling from ear to ear, with an armful of stuffed toys that had probably cost over fifty bucks.

There is nothing like a small child to make tough, grown men fall all over themselves and hand out cash. 

This is an example of compassion…

In 2015, I was with over a hundred bikers who rode into Charleston, South Carolina to attend a church service at Mother Emmanuel just a month after Dylan Roof murdered some of their members. When hundreds of motorcycles show up every year at Richard M. Campbell Veterans Home, I see the faces of old soldiers who appreciate our gesture. When bikers raised tens of thousands of dollars for a brother of mine who is suffering from cancer, I felt the love.

Having been a part of the motorcycle community for most of my life, I can attest there are few more pure examples of unregulated, unbiased compassion for other people than exists in the heart of the American biker. They will give their last dollar, donate their time, and do anything necessary to assist those in need.

This too, is an example of compassion…

Jesus was a man of compassion. He reached out to the downtrodden, diseased, and ostracized. He ate with criminals and prostitutes, fed the poor, and healed the sick. Jesus gave of his time, talents, and possessions in order to assist those who needed it more than him. After all that, compassion was the motivating factor when he walked up the hill to the cross. He gave his life so that we could be saved.

Jesus knew that our sinful behavior would require a sacrifice and he became that sacrifice. Not because he wanted to, but because he had compassion.

Just like my granddaughter will likely remember those bikers who were kind to her, we need to also remember the Savior who died in our place long ago so that we might live. And with our lives, we should honor his sacrifice.

1 Peter 3:8-9 NIV Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

Dennis Reynolds
National Elder
Bikers For Christ M/M