The Bent Rim

I once went off the road to save a man's life. I was driving on the main road and after passing another vehicle that was going way below the speed limit, I signalled that I was going back into the right lane.

He was on side road and interpreted by signal to say that I was about to get off onto his road. He pulled out and my car was hurling toward the driver's door. he had only one chance to survive.

I pulled hard to the left, causing my car to go off the road, into the grassy verge that separated the two southbound lanes I had come from from the two northbound lanes on the other side. The car went hard down into the verge (which was V-shaped in cross-section) and I came up out of it onto the left lane on the northbound side, where, praise God, there was no oncoming vehicle coming for at least three quarters of a mile. Seeing his life pass before him and the risk I took to save his life (perhaps one he wouldn't have taken himself), he was suitably grateful and payed for all the obvious repairs for my car.

But there was one problem that got worse and worse after he had paid me. I would be driving along and if I reached a certain speed, the car would shake violently. A few miles faster or slower and it would disappear. A mechanic quickly discovered the problem: I had a bent right rear tire rim which I had to replace, a result of my run off the road.

Normally, the center of a tire wheel corresponds to the center of the axle, but when a rim is bent, the center of the wheel becomes different wandering in and out as it rotates. depending how much it is warped, it will induce a vibration in the car at one speed or another. We call such a wheel eccentric and being just a little off center can cause you a lot of trouble.

The Bible tells us in Genesis that the tree that was at the center of the Garden of Eden was the Tree of Life and that next to it was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It will also tell us further on that Adam was living under the misconception that it was this second tree that was at the center of the garden. He was only off by a little bit, his thinking just a little eccentric and he was about to get into big trouble, as we shall see. He will tell God that he had eaten from the tree that was at the center of the garden, but, if he had eaten f that tree he would have been doing the right thing. More to come.