My favorite Christmas story

As I read some of the threads in one of the "Christian" Forums in MySpace I started to notice a trend. People were quoting single verses from the Bible without any regard for context. Most of the time the verse contains the main point of its context. However several were not only not the main point, they were taken totally out of context and missed the main point entirely. It reminded me of my favorite Christmas story.

When I was a little boy, my family lived in a small town in rural South Caroline named Orangeburg. One of the popular television show for children, in the area, was the Mr. Nosit (sp?) Show. Mr. Nosit (I don't remember his real name) was the weatherman at the station who performed double duty as the children show host.

On one of the shows right before Christmas, Mr. Nozit asked each of the kids on the show to draw a Christmas picture. Most of the kids drew manger scenes, shepherds in the field scenes, and wise men following the star scenes.

One little boy drew an airplane.

Mr. Nosit ran through most of the pictures fairly quickly but the picture of the airplane stopped him dead on his track.

He looked at it. Looked at the camera (probably at the producer behind the camera). Looked at the picture again and then ask the boy, "So, why did you draw an airplane? Is it because your mom and dad take you on a trip every Christmas?"

The boy shook his head, "No, it's Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus on their flight to Egypt."

Mr. Nosit couldn't hold back his laughter. He literally dropped the microphone while laughing.

When he regained his composure, he asked, "So who's the guy at the front of the plane?"

The boy replied, "Punch the Pilot."

Context is so important to understanding a Bible verse.