Dr. Jerry Schmallengberger, former president of Pacific Lutheran Seminary in Berkeley, CA, tells a hilarious story about a Christmas program that went awry. The story concerned a Pastor Paul Dahlrimple who had a great scheme to illustrate baby Jesus coming down from heaven. Pastor Dahlrimple asked Elder Fred to help. In preparation, he carefully rigged a baby doll to an invisible fishing line, stringing it through hooks in the ceiling and across to Elder Fred’s fishing pole in the wings. This baby doll was to be the baby Jesus.

As his sermon progressed, Pastor Dahlrimple would come to the words, "and Jesus came down from heaven that night and into the manger of Bethlehem." Elder Fred was to take the cue to lower "baby Jesus" into the manger waiting down on the floor below.

The cue came, …