Don’t Be A Real April Fool

by Karen Roberts


Since I work with kids, I got to enjoy their excitement about today being April Fools Day. Some of them didn’t quite “get it” and would make a silly statement like, “There’s a dragon on your head,” and right away say “April Fool!” However most of them played some of the standard tricks like, “Hey, your shoe’s untied.” And then when the person looked down, called out, “April Fool!”

One of the teachers I work with put “March 32, 2010” up on the board where she writes the date every day. The kids got a kick out of that. Two teachers listed homework for the Easter break on the board as the following:
Read 15 hours.
Observe and identify 3018 rocks.
Copy every word in your vocabulary book.

A few of the kids at first wondered if this really was their assignment! I watched one teacher do a great job of keeping a straight face and not really replying to their questions about the assignment until the end of the day when she said it was an April Fools joke.

A group of girls wanted to prank their teacher, so they told several others to all pretend they were sick after lunch. As they walked down the hall, they were coughing and coughing. Of course, the teacher could tell these were fake coughs, but played along by sending a few girls to the nurse. She chuckled as she heard a lot of giggles from the nurse’s office. As the kids headed back to the room, two teachers remarked loudly in the hall that it was too bad so many kids had a cough because they had wanted to take them outside for an extra recess. It suddenly became quiet!

So the teachers then said that if the students could walk quietly back to their rooms, they would still take them out. Of course, the coughing ceased! Once outside, the same group of girls decided they wanted the teachers help to pull a prank on the boys. So the teachers agreed that when it was time for the students to line up to go inside, they would announce that everyone had to run a lap around the playground, and that the first ones around could get drinks at the water fountain first. The girls were to tell all the other girls to let the boys take off ahead of them, and that one of the teachers would then be at the other door to quickly let them in while the boys would continue to run the lap.

The girls ran around and giggled, gathering in groups like clucking chickens, hopping up and down in anticipation. Some of the boys who weren’t involved in a kickball game started bursting into the little groups of silly girls. They knew something was up, but didn’t know what. Once the teachers were assured that all the girls knew the plan, the whistle sounded and everyone flocked to line up at the door.

Just as planned, most of the boys gleefully took off in a run ahead of the girls, and when they rounded the corner past the other door, one teacher opened it! The teachers and I burst into laughter as we noticed that only about one third of the girls and three boys ran inside the opened door. Everyone else, including all the rest of the girls, headed around the playground to finish the lap. It must be that the teacher spoke so authoritatively about that lap that the other girls thought they had better obey instead of ducking inside the other door!

Needless to say, April Fools Day was quite entertaining today! I had a lot of chuckles and laughs as different people played the fool as they fell for various jokes. Even I got tricked a couple of times.

But the Bible’s description of real fools is no laughing matter.

Psalm 53:1 says that the fool has said in his heart “There is no God.” In spite of all the miracles around us, in spite of God’s Word, and in spite of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a fool just will not believe.

The book of Proverbs has much to say about the wise and the foolish. Chapter 12, verse 15, tells us that a fool is right in his own eyes. So often we play the fool when we aren’t open to anyone’s perspective but our own. We can be blind to our own sin and weaknesses. Only by humbling ourselves and asking the Lord to shine the light of His Spirit to reveal the truth about ourselves to us, can we receive the forgiveness and change that we need in our own hearts. Then we won’t go on being a fool.

Proverbs 18:2 tells us that a fool has no delight in understanding. He just wants to express what is in his own heart. This reveals that when we are so taken up in how we ourselves perceive things and are so eager to express our own opinion all the time, we are in danger of being a fool. It’s easy to become a “know-it-all,” even in areas of our faith and understanding of Scripture – to the point where we are not receptive to hearing or coming to understand what others have to teach us.

On this April Fools Day, let’s not be real April Fools. Instead, let’s be open to all that God wants to reveal to us about ourselves, about His Word, and about Himself.