My leaky putter cup

First of all, this is a putter cup.

I learned this little tidbit of information about 25 years ago when I was helping in a preschool Vacation Bible School class & we used these (communion) cups to make a craft. The box they were in called them putter cups. I don't know a single person who still calls them putter cups these days. In fact, when I googled putter cup to find this image, I could only find golf equipment. But I think the word is cute, so I still use it. It's fun to stump people with. Throw it into conversation this week & see how many funny looks you get.

So anyway, today at church, we had communion. To help you envision how this all went down, let me explain some things.

We were sitting at the front of the church, on the 2nd row. The men who are serving the elements start at the front of the building & carry 2 little trays (one with the bread, one with the cup) and pass them down the rows of people and work their way to the back of the building. It take a few minutes to get it all passed out. Once it is all passed out, they return to the front & Scripture is read & the elements are prayed over. Then we eat the bread and drink the cup.

As communion began, the elements were passed down our row of seats & we each got our bread & cup and sat patiently, holding the two items as the men made their way toward the back. Almost immediately Sarah pointed out to me that her cup was wet on the outside. I figured that some of the juice had dribbled onto the side of the cup when they were filling them, so I traded with her. I wiped away the wetness from the outside of the cup & then relaxed, holding it in my right hand while the bread/wafer thingie rested in my left. Only moments later I realized that my hand was puddled with grape juice. Hmm....that's strange. I wiped it on my pants & then held up the cup to inspect & realized that it was steadily seeping out the bottom of the cup. The cup had a teeny hole in it. I looked up & the men weren't even halfway through the building. I realized then that I would not have anything left in this cup by the time we drank it if it continued to drip. I tried to plug the hole with my fingers but that wasn't working. The family sitting across the aisle from me had realized my dilemma & they were giggling too. I mouthed to the mom of this family "It has a hole in it! They need to hurry up!!" ha ha!

I spotted the little baskets that we use to dispose of the cups after communion under the chair in front of me. It had a napkin in it, so I grabbed that & wrapped it around my cup. It was hilarious to see how quickly that very absorbent white paper napkin turned totally purple. I could've wrung it out in my mouth when it came time to drink the juice.

Sarah sweetly shared some of her juice with me (she poured some into my cup), but it was still pretty empty by the time we all turned up our cups in remembrance of the shed blood.

I had to laugh through the whole thing. What should've been a really quiet, reverent moment was quite comical. And I have to believe that God was laughing too.

Sometimes church is pretty quiet. Today it was funny....and I love that. Laughter is good for all of us. And keeping with the funny day theme, this video was played as a sermon illustration. Smart....but funny!