Twas the middle of the week. Thursday, I believe. We’d been talking about Noah and the flood all week, and we were looking at being thankful to God for His protection and provision.

I had a poster depicting Noah burning an animal on a stone altar. I asked the children, what did Noah do when he got off the ark?

“He burned an animal!” came the astute replies.

I asked, “Why did he do that?”

“To show he was grateful to God!” they said.

Seeing wonderful opportunity I told the children, “That is exactly what we are going to do. We are going to burn an animal too to show God we’re thankful!” The discomfort was palpable. Mission accomplished.

At this point I glanced across the room at my trusty helper, Kenton, a 7th grader. My class was used to me picking on Kenton by now. I said, “Kenton: did you bring the squirrel I told you to catch?”

Kenton sat and stared. I think he knew I was kidding, but he didn’t know what to say. It was perfect. To a more gullible being, Kenton appeared to have been caught in the act of not doing what he was told.

In my best I’m-disappointed-in-you voice I commented, “I ask you to do one lousy thing, and you can’t do it?”

It was at this point a student named Hayden piped up and said, “Let’s burn him, then!”

And that, my friend, is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard said by a student at VBS.