Every April 1st my mind floats back to childhood and April Fool’s Day with our fun-loving mom. Actually, she enjoyed playing tricks on people year ’round.

Mom owned an entire box of tricks, including a beautiful crystal juice glass with tiny cuts in its pattern. As the person drank, juice would dribble down their front, and she would laugh till she cried.

She also had a plastic puddle of fake vomit, a true-to-life melted ice cream bar, and a realistic-looking doggie deposit. Her pack of gum snapped any fingers trying to take a piece, and she made such regular use of her plastic ice cube with the fly in it, that it finally turned yellow.

Mom got a kick out of short-sheeting the beds of overnight guests, especially those who weren’t acquainted with her jokester ways. And when people came to dinner, they might get the plate with an inflatable “lift” beneath it, operated by a squeeze-bulb in Mom’s lap.

If a pastor was coming, she might put her pin-up girl decals under the toilet seat. I remember her chuckling as she set that up for Alan Redpath, pastor of Moody Church, just before he and his family arrived for dinner.

I’m not sure what the Lord thought of Mom’s endless trickery. Although Scripture does record God laughing (Psalm 37:13), dabbling in shallow humor doesn’t seem to fit with his holy character. And I don’t think he ever duped people into believing something that wasn’t true.

I, on the other hand, can’t say the same. How often have I tried to pull a fast one by cutting a corner and then convincing myself that God “didn’t catch that.” But of course there’s nothing God doesn’t “catch.”

I don’t think he cares one way or the other about leaky juice glasses or short-sheeted beds, but he does care about protecting and promoting his truth. I’ve gotten myself into trouble on more than one occasion by not being truthful, and I still fail often by way of embellishment and exaggeration.

It’s not that God wants us to be bland in our speech. Scripture instructs us to “be salty” as we talk about spiritual things with others, and that can’t mean anything other than to make it “taste good.” It might even mean it’s ok to use humor in the process. Mom did her share of winning souls to Christ, and something tells me she made that fun, too.

As for Pastor Redpath, I’m not sure what he thought about Mom’s pin-up decals. When he came out of the bathroom that day he didn’t say a word. Maybe in the end, that joke was on Mom.

 “A joyful heart is good medi- cine.” (Proverbs 17:22)