The Best Teacher 

Regardless of how old we are – or young, depending on how you see yourself – most of us remember the teachers we had at school. For better or for worse, these teachers either shaped us in positive ways, or made us dread going to whatever class they taught. I for one, still remember the Sixth Form teacher that told me that I wouldn’t get into the university I wanted to if I carried on the way I was going. I used to think she was the meanest person to walk the face of the planet! However, in hindsight, I now appreciate her for telling me the truth and waking me up from a deep academic stupor, leading me to become a two-time alumnus of that same university!

In a nutshell; teachers are important. For those reading this post who are parents, I’m sure that you all take note of the good teachers that guide your children, help them, and make their growth a priority. This sometimes looks like saying what might be hard to hear, but with the desired goal of letting your child know that they can do much better!

I have a teacher that I adore. He is one that does all the things that a good teacher is meant to do, but is totally incomparable to any human teacher, notwithstanding the fact that He has never clocked out once, is always there for me, always tells me what I need to know, and most certainly pushes for my growth. Surprise, surprise (not really, let’s be honest), that teacher is the Holy Spirit!

Ever since I became serious about walking with Jesus, I’ve become enamoured by the person of the Holy Spirit, with how gentle, yet firm He is. How in the midst of all the noise of this world, He doesn’t speak in shouts, bangs, thunder or cymbals, but most times, with a whisper, a thought, or a nudge.

In that, the image given to us of this most special Teacher as a dove is so fitting. Doves are such gentle creatures. I am reminded of a story that I read in RT Kendall’s Word and Spirit Devotional, about a couple that fought incessantly until they noticed that the dove that sat on their window would fly away every time they did so. Once they realised this, they quickly sorted themselves out!

I imagine Him in the form of a dove, “hovering over the waters”, over the “darkness”, “void” and “formless” nature of “the surface of the deep” (Genesis 1:2); foreshadowing the peace that God originally planned for the world. Then we have this same imagery of Him as a dove in Genesis 8:6-12, letting Noah know that nature would once more return to harmony after the flood. The dove pops up again and again, perhaps most significantly over Jesus at His baptism, signalling that He would bring peace to this world through His life, death and resurrection. I could go on and on, but in a nutshell, the Holy Spirit, our most precious dove, is a representation of the peace of God. 

You see, this Teacher wants us to be like Jesus. He wants us to be still in the face of the myriad opportunities we have to be shaken, He wants us to learn from Him as He receives from God, seeing as “no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11). He so desires that as those who claim to be God’s children, we have characters that exude love, graciousness, kindness, forbearance, peace, patience, joyfulness, goodness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Honestly, in this season of life, with many things vying for my attention and emotions, I have found it especially hard to be all those things, but that’s what our Good Teacher is for. He gladly bears the role of teaching us to be everything we could never be on our own even if we tried a million times. All that He desires from us is that we value Him, acknowledge His presence (even when He tells us off), and cling to Him, just as we do our memories of good earthly teachers.