Jonathots Daily Blog
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art by Clazzy
Music: Joy
(arr. Jonathan Richard Cring)
From the Symphony, Have Yourself a Clazzy Little Christmas
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Jonathots Daily Blog
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art by Clazzy
Music: Two Christmas (arr. Jonathan Richard Cring)
Performed by Cring & Clazzy
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Jonathots Daily Blog
(3908)
This is not a present.
This is a box which has been carefully wrapped in gorgeous paper, surrounded with an immaculate bow. 
We have no idea what’s inside.
We are led to believe that because it was wrapped so fastidiously that the contents are valuable.
But we don’t know. We can’t even guess. It could be a box of dog poop. It could hold nothing at all–or worse, it could be a juicer.
We have grown accustomed to calling things that are wrapped tightly and made to look attractive…
Well, we call them presents. Or gifts.
They are not. They are actually worthless until we tear them apart and find out what’s inside.
This, pictured below, is a real present:
As you can see, the paper is not impressive. The wrapping job is passable. But inside is value. Obvious value.
It might not even have been the first present you opened on Christmas morning, figuring because it was so bland or ugly, that it came from a long-lost aunt who picked it up at a convenience store on Christmas Eve to cover her butt.
So while you’re opening all the pretty presents bound up with bows, this one sits in the corner–containing the greatest quality.
Our society wraps us up, having no idea of the value of the people we meet.
We judge on appearance.
We evaluate on how concisely people have put their lives together.
We look at the things that surround them to determine their value.
We are often wrong. I will go so far as to say that more often than not we are wrong.
Then…
Every once in a while, we find that plainly wrapped gift, bound with twine. When we break our prejudice and decide to open it, we are astounded at the content.
So, I am no longer participating in the fashion show of human boxes we are required to climb into in order to be acceptable for a society that doesn’t know what the hell it’s doing.
I will do you a favor. I will not hide my soul. I will not disguise my talents. And also, I will not flaunt my humility.
But I will come… unwrapped.
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Jonathots Daily Blog
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A. “Start Your Own Beehive in Your Garage: 12 Easy Steps”
B. “Mr. Spock Reads Dr. Spock: Raising Kids the Vulcan Way”
C. “A Tub of Ant Butter and Willy-Worm Bread from African Missionaries”
D. “The Four Hoodie Sweatshirt–for the Man Who Likes Choices”
E. “Toiletries from the Holy Land: Smell Like a Prophet”
Jonathots Daily Blog
(3539)
I went to church today.
There was no choir. There were no pews. There was no sermon. There was no invocation, except the squealing delight of children. There was no real benediction, but for the promises of those who had gathered to stay more in contact.
There was no threat of damnation, nor promise of streets of gold. There was so much contentment in being together that intimidation was unnecessary, and coercion, meaningless.
You see, I’m a father.
As a father, I do not evaluate my children by how much they adore me or praise my name. I determine the health of my children by how much they love each other–because it would be easy for them to despise their siblings so as to gain my favor, and perhaps, secure a sweeter inheritance.
So praising Daddy does not mean nearly as much as honoring one another.
In the church service this morning, there was respect for humanity. There was anticipation in the eyes of those who were giving, and a nervous jubilance twitching in the fingertips of those who were preparing to receive. An electricity filled the air that could only be adequately fueled by a perpetual flow of sweets and treats.
It was a worship of the Christ child–a salute to a simple birth, which simply ushered in the possibility of “peace on Earth, good will toward men.”
It was an intergenerational feast day of emotion and anticipation, culminating in the removal of all vexation, curses and grudges.
It was the kind of meeting of souls that causes the angels to sit back in awe, pricked in the heart with a bit of jealousy over not being human.
For we do everything best just as we do everything worst. We are God’s creation, who knows both the knowledge of good and the depths of evil.
Oh, but when we want to be good…we can be amazing.
We can bring tears to our Heavenly Father’s eyes when we tenderly take our human flesh and extend it from His mind and soul to reach into the hearts and lives of others.
Today I went to church. Some people would call it Christmas morning.
The good news is that Christmas morning is church.
The better news is, the more we take every church service and make it like Christmas morning, the more blessed the world would be.
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Jonathots Daily Blog
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My Christmas morning:
It was all held in a lovely, but somewhat square-footage-impaired house in East Nashville.
Although most people consider Christmas to be a holiday season which they either enjoy or complain about trying to get through, I contend that Christmas is a microcosm of life as it should be. It’s a collision of giving and receiving, organizing and finding yourself surprised by a slip-up, and having a crunch of humanity around you which requires you to be open-minded and willing to adapt.
For instance, in the course of our morning, well over a hundred presents were opened.
Also, one of the young men decided to use it as an occasion to propose marriage to his girlfriend–an amazing precedent.
And there were moments of silliness followed by junctures of tenderness, concluding with decisions to stay energetic enough to survive the gauntlet.
The adults made themselves flexible to appreciate toys opened by Santa believers and the subtleties of certain gifts which needed to be explained because they only had significance to the recipient.
Then, in the midst of the festivities and the brunch following, we discovered that one of the guests just lost his grandma. She had passed away in her sleep.
Quiet–and amazing it was how quickly it settled on the room, even among the children. A time to feel and consider the magnitude of such a departure.
Tears.
Gentleness.
Allowing ourselves to transition from one emotion to another without trauma or drama, to return to eating and enjoying one another as life insisted on pushing forward. I heard one person declare the day a “miracle,” but actually, it’s the way our lives are meant to be lived: in abundance.
Abundant opportunities
Abundant problems
Abundant relationships
Abundant attempts
Abundant failures
Abundant successes
And abundant gratitude
The good news is that Christmas is a time for abundance.
The better news is that the baby in the manger came to give us life, and it more abundantly.
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| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
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A voice writing in the wilderness
Jonathots Daily Blog 
G-Poppers … December 22nd, 2017
Jonathots Daily Blog
(3529)
Family has gathered for Christmas, bringing their local organic microbes and bugs along with them–one being an infestation of the tummy.
Normally G-Pop fares pretty well in these situations, but this particular brand seems to take no prisoners, and does not discriminate based upon genial nature or obviously, good looks.
Everyone has had the stomach flu. Matter of fact, when you’re not having the stomach flu, you look back on it as a bizarre inconvenience. It’s more or less one of those things that happens, lasts for a few hours, and it’s gone.
Similar to an atomic bomb.
The sensation of having lost control of one of the major systems in your body is disconcerting and certainly humbling.
G-Pop abandoned all of his appetite, he was at the mercy of all the exit areas of his being, and he was at the whim of this little bug that had landed in his system and was desperately trying to work its way out.
Yes, G-Pop felt the whole time that this stomach virus was just as pissed about being inside him as he was at having it inside. For all of its antagonizing, agonizing and struggling ways let G-Pop know that it truly did want to be free.
Simultaneously, G-Pop had to try to make sure it didn’t infect anyone else in the house. Tricky business.
Having the stomach flu right before Christmas is a little frightening–because one wonders if one will be able to participate in the festivities.
But the truth of the matter is, life actually does consist of “one day at a time,” and since today is not Christmas morning, there’s a good shot that some “Joy to the World” can still be excavated from a “Silent Night.”
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on December 22, 2017 at 3:46 pm Comments (1)Tags: atomic bomb, bodily functions, Christmas, Christmas morning, contagious, family gathering, G-Pop, humbling, infestation, joy to the world, mercy, microbes, out of towners, Silent Night, stomach flu, virus, whim