Teaching

This is going to be another Big Ed story. Big Ed was my father. I have written about him previously in an entry entitled "Road".
I was in my senior year of high school, preparing to take the written and road tests for a driver's license. My school offered Driver's Ed courses, but we only actually drove for one period/week. Towards the end of the course, it was time to practice parallel parking. Since there were four students in each car, we had to take turns driving, so we didn't get much time for each student to drive. It turned out that our driving teacher, I'll call him Mr. K., was a "yeller". As we would attempt to back up into the parking space at the curb, he would be yelling, "Turn the wheel, turn the wheel!", "Turn it harder!", "Straighten out!". "Stop, stop!". He especially hated it when we stomped on the brake, stopping the car suddenly, because his seat belt would pull tightly right across the area of his stomach ulcer. His yelling could really rattle you, when you were already a little nervous. After all, it wasn't as if we were trying to do badly.
While most of my driving was pretty good, I was having trouble with the parallel parking. At home, my Mom would sometimes take me out to practice driving, but she was the nervous type. Out on the road with her, it wouldn't be long before we would be turning back towards home, because she just couldn't take it. My father, on the other hand, was far more relaxed when giving a driving lesson. He was even known to fall asleep a time or two at critical moments. So, one Sunday after dinner, I asked my Dad if he would take me to practice parallel parking, and he agreed. That late afternoon, we had just driven one house up the street, when he told me to go ahead and parallel park in front of the neighbor's parked station wagon.
I completed the parking, and I don't remember it being too bad of an effort. After I finished parking, we sat and talked about it for a few seconds, and then he indicated for me to pull out, and resume driving. While we had been sitting parked, I forgot that I still had the car in reverse gear. So when I stepped on the gas to pull out, instead of going forward, we went backwards, and I hit the neighbor's car behind us. I froze in place, stunned, and then looked over at Big Ed. Being used to the yelling of from my high school driving teacher, I braced myself for the anger that my Dad would unleash. To my surprise, Big Ed began waving his hands to go forward, and said, "Hurry up, just go!" And we did. As we sped off, my Dad was sitting there in the passenger seat, laughing. When we came back in the house, my Mom asked, "How did it go?", and my Dad just answered "Fine." There were certain things you just couldn't tell my mother (although she seemed to know a lot of what was going on anyway! How did she do that?). I did go and peek at the neighbor's car the next day, and couldn't see damage. That was back in the day when cars were made out of metal.
While I don't condone Big Ed's relaxed attitude towards the rules of the road, and I don't recommend "hit and run" for solving life's little problems, that day I did form an appreciation for my father's teaching technique. I was thankful that he wasn't a "yeller", and that he knew how to keep a secret. He never mentioned the "station wagon incident" to me again, and I went on to successfully pass the driving test, including parallel parking.
Our Father in heaven is, in some ways, like Big Ed. While He doesn't believe in breaking His Law, including His command to love our neighbor (and not to hit his car), He provided a covering for us through His dear Son. Like Big Ed, our heavenly Father, through His Holy Spirit, is not a "yeller" (1 Ki. 19:12-13), even though His voice is powerful and unmistakable. For those who sincerely seek to live in His Spirit, He doesn't teach by using condemnation (Jn. 5:24, Rom. 8:1), and most of the time, things remain a shared secret between you and Him (Prov. 11:13). The tests come (James 1:2-4), and He fully expects us to pass them with flying colors, but if we fail, He will teach us again, and give us a second chance. Many times, I have been thankful for God's second, third, and fourth chances. How He continues to teach in mercy and patience (James 3:17), is something I wish I could master. As with Big Ed, I have formed an appreciation for God's teaching technique.

Our Father is a great teacher.

"One Thing Remains"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_KXsMCJgBQ