The Stick Shift

When my husband was eighteen, he bought his own car.
It was an older Saab that looked like a Volkswagen beetle. (but don’t tell him I said that!)

My husband worked hard, earned money, and always seemed to be able to save.
His first job was delivering newspapers on his bike.
Later, he worked for a man who had a large property complete with a barn and many out buildings.

One summer, while we were in high school, he painted all of the buildings by himself…an interesting job when you are Irish and fair skinned with freckles.
Needless to say, he had a lot of sunburn…but he looks back on that time fondly.

He actually asked the owner if he could bring me to the property to go swimming.
There was on old mill with a water wheel that fed the pool with cool, fresh water.
I remember the man’s large dog jumped in and swam with us.

My husband also worked for a construction company, owned by the father of our dear friend, who would one day be our best man.

Many jobs…many skills…a hard worker…able to save money…his first car at eighteen.

My husband was the fifth child in a family of eight children.
He was born on St. Patrick’s Day.
The brother before him was named Patrick.
So, he was named Michael, with Patrick as his middle name.

My mother died in our sophomore year of high school.
Michael’s oldest brother died in a car accident the following year.
Attraction may bring two people together, but difficult things, that you both go through together, often act as glue.

You see what each other is made of.
You support and encourage each other.
You get through those times together.

Michael’s Mother was not very happy when he bought a car so soon after his brother died.
But he was eighteen, going off to college soon, and though he loved his mother, this was something he had to do.

Anyone that knows us well, remembers that green car.
He took such good care of it.
Each fall, when he left to go back to college in Atlanta, he would remove the tires and put his car on concrete blocks.
I asked him why he did that, and to this day, I don’t really know the reason.
Something about pressure on the tires as it sat for most of the year.

Actually, we left for our honeymoon in that car…all decorated with shaving cream and crepe paper…just married written on the windows with soap.
Needless to say, we left in style!
It had rained a lot while we were gone.
You can imagine what that car looked like when we saw it in the airport parking lot.

Even though there are great memories surrounding that car, it is also the scene of our first argument.

Michael wanted to teach me to drive his car.
I already knew how to drive, of course.
However, I never drove a stick shift.
This was not just an ordinary stick shift.
This stick shift was on the driving wheel column…not on the floor.

To anyone else, that may not be a problem…just a bit of a learning curve.
But I am left-handed…VERY left-handed.
I cannot do anything with my right hand.

In order to drive his car, I had to shift gears with my right hand.
Imagine having someone tell you that it is just a simple “H”…that’s all you do!
That meant nothing.
I did not have the dexterity to maneuver the stick shift.

He didn’t take me to a parking lot or a back road, he took me on a real road that was near my house…near a swim club we belonged to…with traffic…and people I knew well!

I tried to tell him that I couldn’t do it.
Maybe after the gears made a grinding noise, he began to believe me.

He was still insistent that I could master this new thing.
Finally, the gears made the grinding noise one last time.
I put the emergency brake on, since we were on a slight incline, and I got out of the car.

He just sat there, not knowing what to do.
The person behind us was honking their horn.
He either had to get out of the car and walk around to the drivers side or sit there and cause a traffic jam.

We circled the car and each got in the other side.
He drove me home.

I have resigned myself to the fact that manual transmissions are not for me.
My husband agrees with me.

Can you imagine if God got out of the car?
What if God got so frustrated with us, He gave up on us?
What if He said, You will never get this. Why am I wasting My time?

He would never do such a thing!
God keeps keeping the covenant when we keep breaking the covenant.
That’s just the way He is!

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing!
(Isaiah 43:18,19)

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you or forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:6)

No matter how many mistakes we make, or how many gears we grind, He is there.
God will never get out of the car.
Never…ever.