Student Driver

I did something as a parent today that I have never looked forward to having to do.

Not ever.

Not once.

I took my fourteen-year old to the parking lot at my office building, turned off the car, got out and gave him the keys.

As he crawled into the driver’s seat, I got in the passenger side.

I fastened my seatbelt.

And we went for a drive.

We’re both still alive.

::

South Dakota has a goofy law or two, one of which allows children to get their sweaty palms on a driver’s license at age fourteen.

He starts driver’s ed this week.

He’s been out a time or two with his dad looking to get comfortable behind the wheel. Today I had my turn to help him not be just like his mom and somehow wind up on the sidewalk on the first day.

Now, he doesn’t scare me as much as some. For one, he can see out the windshield without a booster seat. I’m over six feet tall, and he passed me up a long time ago. I look him square in the chest. And he can be just a little wary about the unfamiliar.

We did ok.

::

It’s a great parking lot to drive in. There are fences, islands, speed bumps, buildings, and aisles going every direction you can imagine. At first, he asked where I wanted him to turn. So I gave him some direction. But after a while that seemed kind of crazy. He had control of the accelerator, the brake and the wheel. He could see where he wanted to go and get there just fine.

So I told him to go ahead and just drive where he wanted.

We drove up and down the aisles, around a lot of corners, even out on the road for a stretch. (Relax, it’s a private drive.)

Sometimes he went slow. Sometimes he went fast. Sometimes he braked or turned a whole lot later than I would have liked.

I jammed my foot to the floorboard more than once looking for the imaginary brake on the passenger side. And I resisted the urge to take the wheel when it seemed as though we were getting a little too personal with the curb.

He did fine.

::

“I’m going to try to park now, ” he told me, as he turned into an angled space.

Seemed to me he was going a little faster than might be necessary to get the job done.

“You’ll want to be stopping now,” I suggested.

“Stop now.”

“STOP NOW!”

He stopped. Had plenty of room.

The car didn’t jump the curb as it looked like it was going to do from my side.

“I knew where I was going to stop, Mom,” he said.

And he did.

::

When I ride with an experienced driver, I don’t usually wonder what they’re doing. Now and then that backseat driver occupies my body and utters words I wish it wouldn’t. But usually I trust they know what they’re doing and can see what’s happening around them. So much so that I feel free to doze comfortably in my seat.

But riding shotgun with a guy who’s driven a handful of times is something else altogether. I had no idea what he planned to do, whether he could see the fence or the grass, whether he could move his size fifteens from the accelerator to the brake on time.

I didn’t truthfully know if I could trust him.

But I did it anyway.

My stomach dropped somewhere under the car a couple of times.

But I let him keep driving.

I recalled the amount of our deductible and calculated the premium increase for a youthful driver plus an accident sustained while driving without a license.

But I checked my seatbelt, held the door handle and let him ride.

::

I’m not going to sit here and suggest that God’s not an experienced driver behind the wheel. But what I thought as Isaac parked the car the last time and gave me back the keys is that I often look at God as an inexperienced driver.

I treat Him as though I could do much better. That He really doesn’t know what He’s doing.

That He should have installed the instructor’s brake on my side of the car so I could counteract His manuevers when I feel the need.

::

I’m riding along with Him, bracing to jump the curb. I suggest, then near shout “Stop now!”

He gives me that tender look that only He can give.

And He tells me, “I knew where I was going to stop.”

::

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

(Proverbs 3:5-6)