BIKER NEWS: Bikers usher in summer with blessing

Cape Town – For bikers, there is a special feel to the windy days as spring heads into summer, something that says, “It’s time.” Time to shake off the winter cobwebs, check the bike over, get out there and blow some fresh air through the corners of your mind.

In northern Europe, where riding a motorcycle in winter is foolhardy at best, it has become a tradition to usher in the new riding season by blessing the bikes – a blessing that has it roots in the thousand-year-old tradition of blessing the fishing fleet, in communities that derive their livelihood from the sea.

But when Annalize Taljaard and Sonja van der Sandt of Lady Bikers SA asked Ds Thinus Britz of the Blouberg Dutch Reformed Church – himself a righteous biker who doesn’t own a car – to conduct a Blessing of the Bikes for Cape Town riders he surprised them by turning their suggestion on its head.

The bikes, he said, are our blessing. They bless their riders with air to breathe that hasn’t been breathed out by somebody else, they bless us with personal freedom at a level which makes us understand that freedom must be earned.

BLESSED

Which is why, when more than 100 riders packed his church on Saturday for Cape Town’s first ever Blessing of the Bikers service, Ds Britz took as his text the iconic opening verses of Matthew Chapter 5.

Blessed are the merciful, he read, for they shall obtain mercy, and blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. These things we can do, he said. If you love your fellow man as you love the Lord, you can show mercy; you can stand between the embittered and make peace.

But when it comes to “Blessed are the pure of heart”, he said, that’s a different story; to take away the impure feelings in our hearts we have to call in more qualified assistance; that’s when we need to be thankful we are not at the top of the spiritual food chain.

Then all the rider stood by their machines as Ds Britz called down a blessing on the riders, asking that every ride should clear their minds and renew their faith; that’s what motorcycles do, he said, and if that’s not being blessed, he doesn’t know what is.

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/motoring/bikes-quads-karts/bikers-usher-in-summer-with-blessing-1.1932656#.ViXv5MXhDDc