After the appearance of my masterful blog two day ago, I was challenged the other day to reveal an April Fool’s prank that was pulled not BY me, but ON me instead. In the interest of all that is fair and goofy, I present said occasion to you now …
As
many of you know, we have taken up the task of working jigsaw puzzles to relax
us and help pass the time during the pandemic quarantines. I even rigged up a barricade around the edge
of our table to keep the pieces from falling into the waiting mouth of a
certain curious canine. The latest
puzzle was quite different. It wasn’t in
the shape of a rectangle at all. Nor
even a square. This one was a huge
circle. So … very odd from the start. We stayed with it, though, and actually got
quite a bit of the center section completed.
Not certain whether that was the appropriate route to follow, but it
seemed to be working for us.
As
you also no doubt know, we host a home group Bible Study on Thursday nights at
our house. Been doing that for years,
and several of the folks who come have been coming for years. So, we’re not really a … staid group. Don’t panic.
That’s just a high class word that means “dull.”
Now,
let’s put those two ingredients together.
I could tell you about our newest member’s recent encounter with
every-flavor jelly beans. Not a pretty
picture or sound, there, Sonya. But I
won’t mention that one. This is about
me, so here goes …
So
… the aforementioned round jigsaw puzzle was on the table, still in many pieces. As people arrived for Bible study, some of them
hang out at the puzzle table, and try their hand at adding a piece or two. Not a problem. Encouraged, in fact. But this time, things proved …
different. Instead of connecting some
pieces, “someone” left three extra puzzle pieces on the table that almost
perfectly matched some of the colors in the actual puzzle. I didn’t even see them until the next day
when I swept my arm across the completed part of the puzzle to reach for a
different piece. I picked one up and
studied it. That color was completed in
the puzzle, though. No place to put
it. My first clue. Then I realized that it felt different from the
rest of the pieces. Not as thick. Clue two.
Then I turned it over. Sure enough,
there was a little message to me, “April Fools.” And it was signed, Sam. I quickly picked up the other two errant
pieces and turned them over, “April Fools, Lauren.” “April Fools, Cathy.” Not too shabby, as pranks go.
Not
wanting all their hard work to be wasted, and knowing that the prank was surely
intended for her anyway, I replaced the pieces to their hidden spots in plain
sight before Chris came into the room.
As is her custom, she made her way over to the table to take a look and
see if she could help. She did much the
same thing I did; she swept her hand across the completed part of the puzzle
and discovered the new inhabitants. She
picked one up and struggled long and hard to force it into place, even knowing
that color was already completed. “Maybe,”
she thought, “Maybe we’ll have to take the whole thing apart because some piece
in there is in the wrong place.” She labored
for a long few minutes before my kind and compassionate nature kicked in. I quietly told her to turn the pieces over. She immediately complied, perhaps thinking
there was somehow a different image on the other side, and I had pranked her by
getting her to piece the wrong side. I
have no idea why she would think that about me, though. But when she saw the distinctive lettering, “April
Fools, Lauren,” she knew she had been had.
So, here’s to the founders of that feast of foolishness, Lauren and
Cathy and Sam. Nice job, guys.
1
Chronicles 16:8 says, “Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make
known among the nations what he has done.”
Father,
thank you for friends who can laugh and who trust each other enough to be,
well, silly with. Amen.
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