Pipe Cleaners

My hands are typing on my laptop right now, but my brain is back in Vacation Bible School.

If you grew up in "Bible World" (as Dr. Stowell calls it), you will know exactly what I'm talking about. Vacation Bible School (or VBS) was a one-week affair each summer where you would spend the whole day at church. It was also one of the few times that you would see a classmate from school come to your church.

One of my fondest memories of VBS was learning about the ultimate Christian Craft: PIPE CLEANERS.

Now, I never smoked a pipe, but you didn't have to be a genius to figure out that these soft, colorful, and bendy things hadn't cleaned a pipe in LONG time.

At VBS, they would tell us bible stories, often involving a flannel graph. But no matter what the story was, the craft always involved pipe cleaners.

• The Prodigal Son? I made the ring that the youngest son was given.
• Job's Leviathan? You're seeing it on the left.
  
• The Lost Sheep? I made a three-color shepherd's crook.
• Zacchaeus? I made a brown and green sycamore tree.
• Esther? Or Ruth? You're seeing it below.
  
• The Judge Ehud? I made a left-handed sword. (Not really)

Anyways. Fun times. Fun times.