I Love Lucy Meets OCC

Did you ever feel like your Operation Christmas Child journey might make a good comedy show?  Yesterday was exactly like that for me.  While doing some cleaning in the attic I found six strands of great beaded Christmas garland and decided to make it into necklaces for our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes.

I figured this would be like the ones I just finished making last week that were like Mardi Gras beads.  I'd cut them into lengths and attach the ends with hot glue and--voila!--necklaces.

I decided to measure out 27" lengths and got the yardstick and scissors.  I measured and made the first cut.  It sounded like this...

Snip...bop....ping...bop...ping...ping...ping...ping -- I had a flash of realization.  These garlands were made of strung beads and said beads were now bouncing off the table and onto the floor.

(Now....I fervently wish I had a video of this.  That would be so much better because word don't do it justice.)

I grabbed the end of the strand before any more beads could escape and decided this would be way easier than burning myself with the hot glue gun.  All I had to do was simply tie the ends together.

So I grabbed the ends and slipped one over the other and....bop...ping...bop...ping....ping....ping....ping

The strand slipped out of my hands and fell to the table, spewing more beads in its wake.  I remembered why I don't do crafts and why I struggled with hospital nursing.  I am woefully lacking in manual dexterity and have very poor hand-eye coordination.

So I decided to make a bracelet out of that first length.

I figured it would get easier now that I knew what to expect.  But I was wrong.

I tried to keep everything low to the table.  I tried to grab each strand quickly before too many beads flew off.  I tried to hold onto the strings tightly as I tied them.

But, alas, more and more beads ended up on the floor.  I began to see the hilarity in the situation and wished I could capture it on video.

I giggled.  Then I chortled.  My husband was trying to take a nap in the living room and wondered what was happening.

And still the beads fell all over the floor.

I persisted despite my handicaps and ended up with 24 necklaces (or bracelets) in the end.  Umm, some of those necklaces are kind of small, so I'm praying God will direct them to girls with tiny heads to slip them over.

But the best part of all of this is that I laughed.  I know my natural self and I know how easily I get frustrated.  My natural self would have thrown those beads across the room at the first sign of trouble.

But because God is gracious and because He is at work in me....I laughed.

This show brought to you by the grace of God.