More Light: Things that happened in December 2025

Maybe I could make a card out of this photo.

Things that Happened In December 2025

Witnessed the swearing in of the School Board candidates I worked so hard

to get elected.  All four of our candidates won.

Got my car inspected within the deadline (THAT’s a miracle).  It passed without repairs.  Yay!

Attended a political rally in the cold cold cold.

Attended outdoor Hanukkah menorah lighting with our synagogue in the

cold cold cold.   An act of defiance and an act of bringing more light into the world.

We frozed our tuchuses off.

The Common Household Husband got two flat tires by driving his EV over a large pothole (which was disguised as a puddle, as potholes often are). Do not recommend.

Sang in the church cantata.  Practiced music for family talent show. Band concert.  Symphony.  If it weren’t for the music, we would not be.  

stockings with the obligatory fruits

Wrapped gifts, stuffed stockings, provided ingredients for others to bake cookies.  Ate cookies.  A lot of cookies.

Christmas Cookie Carbohydrate Center

I believe the mud-colored icing
on the United States cookie
was intentional.

Picked up the “Blind Date with a Book” items I ordered from our library’s fundraiser.  I get them mainly because they are so beautifully wrapped.  The librarian picks a book from one of 6 categories (I request the category) but you don’t know what the book is until you open the gift. Each book comes with a pen, and bookmark, a hot chocolate packet, and a peppermint.

My only mistake was not getting one for myself.

Made progress on estate matters.  But it is still not done yet.  Will be two years in March 2026.

The CHH cleaned out some of the shelves in the front closet.  Still more to do there.

Read scripture at Christmas Eve worship.  “In the beginning was the Word …The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.”  Played piano accompaniment for a duet “Gesu Bambino”.   Bringing more light into this dark world.

Christmas morning with the family. Much fun.

Figured out what to make for dinners.  This had ceased to be an issue in this

empty-nester house, but one adult child came home on Dec 18th to stay for

several weeks, so meal planning was required.  Bonus: That adult child

cooked many of the meals. Yessss!

Kept up with a more hectic work schedule, brought on by the emergence from the federal government shutdown.  One of the agencies whose reports I summarize went from once a week to twice a week publication.  

Had a bunch of medical tests which I had put off until after the election. In retrospect, I do not recommend delaying such things.  Because the ultimate triumph in politics and elections is outliving the f#&*ers and living to vote in every next election.  One test revealed that there is no life-threatening issue behind my pulsatile tinnitus, so it’s relegated to the status of Really Annoying But Not Painful or Dooming.  However, that test uncovered another issue of concern, which, after even further testing, was determined to not be of immediate concern.  Return for repeat testing in a year and don’t think about it until told to.  Another type of test was inconclusive, so more testing must be done.

After Christmas, we joined the extended family for a gathering at a place that housed all 18 of us in one building.  A huge blessing to be with those people.  My generation is now the oldest generation in the family so I count every moment we can spend with them as an unearned moment of grace.  (Except maybe for the moment where someone was stomping around at 11:30 PM in the room over our heads.  That was a moment of tolerance practiced.)

Shenandoah Valley

Finally superglued my shoe!  Have not yet tested it out.

Accompanied the Common Household Husband driving to a New Year’s Eve party in a blinding snowstorm.  Other people had the sense to stay home, but not the CHH.  I went mainly because staying home and wondering if he was lying in a ditch would be more painful.   Made it there and back (by 10:30 PM).

First Lines: December 2025 edition

Below are the first lines of the 6 books I finished reading in December, of which 2 fiction, 3 non-fiction and 1 Bible book. 1,358 pages.

Books in which disabilities portrayed: none or one, considering how you count a genetic condition causing lack of growth to limbs.

Book 1

I love Christmas.  When I was a child, I sang Christmas carols in the public schools in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and to this day, in the car, or in the shower, or sometimes in the hallways of Vanderbilt Divinity School.

 

 

Book 2

Disaster Reaches the Very Gates

Y-hw-h’s message that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah*, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 

*My typo "Juday" has been corrected.  This first line is not from an old movie where they say "Juday, Juday, Juday."

 

Book 3

A Good Friend Is Like A Hill 

Driving to the office in her battered white van, down the Tlokweng Road, past the stand of whispering gum trees, Mma Ramotswe, founder and owner of the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, allowed her mind to wander. 

 

Book 4

1968

On a sticky August evening two weeks before her due date, Ashima Ganguli stands in the kitchen of a Central Square apartment, combining Rice Krispies and Planters peanuts and chopped red onion in a bowl.

 

Book 5

I was born on June 24, 1946, ten days after the birth of Donald John Trump, twelve days before the birth of George Walker Bush, and fifty-six days before the birth of William Jefferson Blythe III, whose name was later changed to Bill Clinton.  

 

 

Book 6

Prologue: We Need A New Story

The Talmud poses a question: If you steal from a Jew who dies with no living relatives, how do you pay back the money? It then dismisses the premise: No Jew is without relatives. 

 

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

Light of the World: A Beginner’s Guide to Advent

By Amy-Jill Levine

139 pages • first pub 2019

I really like Dr Levine’s style and substance.  This book is a good and short introduction to some themes of the Advent season.  The quote shows the remarkable nature of Dr Levine’s scholarship:  she is a practicing Jewish scholar of the New Testament, and shows great appreciation for her subject matter.  I read it for discussion at church.

 

Book 2

Micah - The Bible

23 pages. Date of completion: Late 8th Century BCE to early 5th Century BCE. 

I read this short book of the Bible via Dr Goldingay’s translation and his commentary in Daniel and the Twelve Prophets for Everyone By John Goldingay.  

Goldingay’s translation is often clunky, but it is good to stretch the mind and read unfamiliar translations of familiar scripture.

Some of the accusations by this prophet apply today, just as much as they did thousands of years ago.  The Lord Y-hw-h has it out for the people, because they have rebelled, been faithless, and tried to rely on themselves, and basically have done evil.   The Lord threatens to come down to earth and cause destruction.  Then the language flips into promises of restoration and healing.  And it goes back and forth for all 7 chapters.   Some of the language is the same as in Isaiah, e.g. beating “spears into pruning hooks”.  In my experience nobody talks about pruning hooks except biblical prophets.  

 

 

Book 3

Precious and Grace (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #17)

By Alexander McCall Smith

227 pages • first pub 2016

fiction mystery

Just what I needed for this frantic time of year.  The focus is on forgiveness, also a message I needed right now.  Bonus:  includes plenty of tea drinking.  I will note that this book was written before the current era of utter madness.

 

 

Book 4

The Namesake

By Jhumpa Lahiri

336 pages • first pub 2003 

fiction contemporary literary

This book (and movie) was mentioned at a public discussion event.  It’s the story of a family of immigrants from India to the US.  It was okay, but I am not sure why it didn’t strike a chord for me.  I thought the writing was very good, but about half-way through I tired of the main character.   There is a fascinating exploration of how people are named, and the consequences.  The notion of having a name for public use and a completely different name for use within the family is not unheard of in American culture, but it has added significance in the culture of the immigrants in the book.

 

 

Book 5

Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America

By Robert B. Reich

461 pages. first pub 2025 

nonfiction economics memoir politics

I appreciate Reich’s point of view on policy issues, and even more than that, his sincerity on those issues, so I appreciated this book going into it.  This memoir adds his personal history, which informs those policy stances.  The world is better off because we have Robert Reich in it, and I am better off having read his memoir.

I don’t know why Storygraph says this is 416 pages.  It was 461 pages in my kindle version, without the notes, 506 with notes.

 

 

Book 6

Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning

By Peter Beinart

172 pages • first pub 2025

nonfiction politics religion

Oof.  A tough but important read.  I read it for book club, and am looking forward to the discussion.   

 

And now some fun quotes from Micah, to finish out the year (Goldingay’s translation):

Hey, you people planning wickedness, doing evil on their beds.

At morning light they do it, because it’s in the power of their hand.

They covet fields and steal them– houses, and take them.

They defraud a man of his house, a person of his own possession.

Therefore Y-hw-h has said this: Here I am, against this family I’m planning evil that you won’t free your neck from.  You won’t walk tall, because it will be a time of evil.

- Micah 2:1-3 (The members of that family seem to be walking tall right now, but…)

They’re people who repudiate good and give themselves to evil,

Who tear the skin from on my people, their flesh from on their bones, who eat my people’s flesh and strip off their skin, and break up their bones, who cut them up as in a pan, like meat inside a pot.

- Micah 3:2-3  (This is one up on “they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats.”)

They’ll sit, each person under his vine and under his fig tree, with no one disturbing.

- Micah 4:4  (Hooray for some positive vibes from Micah!)

He has told you, people, what’s good, what Y-hw-h seeks from you:

Rather, implementing decisions and giving yourself to commitment,

And being diffident in how you walk with your God.

- Micah 6:8

“Diffident” means modest or shy.

Goldingay interprets:  what God is interested in is simple; God wants two things.

1. “Make decisions in a way that expresses giving of yourselves to commitment.”  Exercise authority in a way that emphasises commitment of people to one another.  

2. “Diffidence in the way people walk with” God.  The Hebrew word for “diffident” is rare but suggests the opposite of arrogance.

Shall I forget the faithless household,

The faithless storehouses,

The accursed short measure?

Shall I be innocent with faithless scales, with a bag of false weights? –

Whose rich people are full of violence, 

Whose residents speak falsehood,

And their tongue is deceit in their mouths?

- Micah 6:9-12 (A lot of the Bible talks about economic justice, which is often ignored by American Christians)

The committed person has perished from the country,

There’s no one upright among the people.

All of them lie in wait for blood;

One person hunts his brother with a net.

Both hands are on evil, to do it well:

The official asking, and the leader, with a reward.

- Micah 7:2-3  (In other words, bribery and grift are the prevailing winds.)

Happy Random Passage of Time Holiday!

The Gospel of John, Chapter 20: Resurrection

Read Chapter 20 here.

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb…” The chapter begins with these familiar words.

At key moments in the narrative, the Gospel of John makes a point of telling us when the action is occurring – early in the day, noon, or the night; in light or in darkness.  Light and darkness are also key metaphors in the gospel for spiritual vision or lack thereof.  At this moment in this gospel telling, the light of a new day is about to shine.

The other important thing to point out here, that is mentioned in nearly every Easter sermon, is that women are main characters here.  In this gospel, one woman is named.

To proceed with the story… Mary Magdalene sees that, surprisingly, the tomb is open - the stone has been rolled away from the entrance.  It doesn’t say she is alarmed but we can guess that she is, from what she does – she immediately runs back to Simon Peter and the disciple “whom Jesus loved” (TDWJL) and tells them that someone has taken Jesus’ body away.  She exclaims, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”  The use of “we” implies that Mary M. had gone to the tomb with other people.

Peter and TDWJL run to the tomb. TDWJL gets there first and peeks in, noticing that the burial cloths are there.  Simon Peter catches up, and fully enters the tomb.  He sees that the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head was folded up, separate from the other cloths.  TDWJL then goes into the tomb.  “He saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”  I think in this sentence, “they” refers to the rest of Jesus’ followers, not including The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved.  

We can infer that what TDWJL believes in that moment is that Jesus is raised from death to life. Could it be that TDWJL is doing a little humble-brag?  Only the most advanced disciples believe in the resurrection right away.  In fact, it’s a relief to learn that it took time for most of the disciples to come to believe in the resurrection. 

The two disciples head back home, leaving Mary still at the tomb, crying.  She looks into the tomb and sees two angels, who ask her why she is crying.  She repeats what she told the disciples - they have taken him (Jesus’s body) away, and I don’t know where they have put him.  She turns around, and sees a person standing there.  It’s Jesus, but Mary does not recognize him yet.  Jesus asks, Why are you crying?  Whom are you looking for?  Mary thinks he is the gardener, and asks him where he has put the body.  

Then Jesus calls her by name.  “Mary!”  She recognizes him and exclaims, “Teacher!”  The text implies that Mary approaches Jesus, because next Jesus warns her “not to hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.”  Jesus instructs Mary to go and tell “my brothers” (the disciples):  

“I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”  (verse 17)

Mary goes to the disciples and tells them that she has seen The Lord, and tells them what he said to her.

I just realized that throughout this gospel, when the word “disciples” is used, my assumption has been that it refers to men.  Isn’t Mary Magdalene a disciple, a follower of Jesus?  It seems she is, or should be considered so, because Jesus entrusts to Mary the crucial message that he is alive, raised from the dead.  But I think this gospel is written with the assumption that the disciples are men.

When Jesus uses the phrase “my Father and your Father” he is reinforcing the unity he spoke of in his prayer in Chapter 17.  “All mine are yours, and yours are mine” (verse 17:10).  In verse  15:15 Jesus had moved from calling the disciples his servants to calling them his friends.  In this phrase in 20:17 Jesus is portraying himself as their brother.  In a sense, this brings us full circle back to chapter 1:  

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.  (1:12-13)

The story leaps to the evening of the same day.  The disciples are meeting together, locking the doors of the house where they are, because they fear the Jewish leaders who opposed Jesus.  Into that gathering Jesus appears and says, “Peace be with you.” (Verse 19)  

Jesus shows them his hands and his side – presumably the marks of his wounds from being nailed to the cross, and from where the soldiers pierced his side after he died.  Nowhere in the text of this gospel did it describe the process of nailing a person to a cross.  It is assumed that we know that is part of crucifixion.  

The wounds are proof that it is Jesus himself.  The disciples are overjoyed to see Jesus.  Jesus says again “Peace be with you,” and continues “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  The first part of this sentence must be further proof of Jesus’ identity, because he has said this very thing about a thousand times in this gospel.  But I think this is the first time in this gospel that Jesus sends the disciples.   The text, as usual, is enigmatic; it does not say exactly where he is sending them or for what purpose.  But we know from Chapter 7 that we should not make the same mistake the Pharisees made (verses 7:32-36).  Jesus is not talking about sending them to the grocery store.  This gospel’s theme is that Jesus was sent from the Father to bring light and life.  Now Jesus is sending the disciples out to bring the same to all. Jesus is sending them to carry out the new commandment to love one another.  That’s my interpretation, anyway.

Then Jesus breathes on the disciples and says:

 “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”  (verse 22-23)

This is quite a gift Jesus is giving.  Jesus had already spoken to the disciples about the gift of the Holy Spirit (14:15-17,  14:25, 15:26, 16:7-13).  But this verse is the only time the word “forgive” appears in the entire Gospel of John (in the NRSV). Will the disciples be careful not to misuse their new power to forgive or retain sins?

One of the disciples was not in that locked room when Jesus appeared – Thomas.  The other disciples tell Thomas they have seen the resurrected Jesus, but he doesn’t believe them.   Thomas declares that he must physically see and touch where the crucifixion nails went into Jesus’ hands and feet, and where the soldiers stuck a spear in his side.  Hence the nickname that he has been stuck with throughout the centuries:  Doubting Thomas. Seems unfair, as in Chapter 11 Thomas was the first one to volunteer to walk into danger with Jesus.

A week passes, and again the disciples are gathered together, with Thomas among them this time.  Jesus appears and says “Peace be with you.”  He invites Thomas to see and touch his hands and his side.  “Do not doubt but believe.”   And Thomas does believe.  Jesus speaks of future believers:

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” (verse 29)

The gospel author notes that Jesus did other “signs” but they are not recorded here. The purpose of what is written in this gospel is: 

so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. (verses 30-21)

Those two verses sound like the end of the gospel, but there is one more chapter.

The Gospel of John, Chapter 11 - Lazarus

Read Chapter 11 here.

Jesus has escaped being stoned twice, and is now on the other side of the Jordan River.

At the start of Chapter 11 we are introduced to Lazarus.  What we know is that he is sick and he lives in Bethany.  The text identifies Bethany as the village of Mary and her sister Martha.  It says Mary is the one who anointed Jesus, but that doesn’t happen until Chapter 12.  Lazarus is the brother of this Mary and Martha.  All three are really close friends of Jesus.

The sisters send a message to Jesus to let him know that his friend Lazarus is ill.  Jesus does not go directly to see Lazarus, because, like the blind man in Chapter 9, this illness “is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”  

Jesus then suggests to the disciples that they all trek off to Judea, but the disciples object that the folks in Judea wanted to stone Jesus.  Jesus replies with, of course, a metaphor.  He says there is light now and so we can walk without stumbling.  But those who walk without the light in them will stumble.  This refers again to sight and blindness (see Chapter 9) and also recalls the start of the gospel: “The light shines in the darkness” (1:5).

Jesus tells the disciples that he is going to Judea to awaken Lazarus.  Jesus is using sleep as a euphemism for death, but the disciples think Jesus is speaking plainly about sleep.  Why would they think he is not using a metaphor?  Then finally, FINALLY, Jesus speaks without metaphor. 

Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead.  For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.  But let us go to him.”  Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”  (verses 14-16)

Thomas is often called Doubting Thomas, but he is very loyal to Jesus here.  The disciples expect Jesus to die.

Bethany is not too far from Jerusalem.  When Jesus & Co get to Bethany, Lazarus has already been dead for four days.  A lot of the family and friends are there to comfort the bereaved sisters.  Martha goes to meet Jesus, expressing her complete faith in Jesus’ ability to bring Lazarus back to life, and Jesus says Lazarus will rise again.  Martha says, well, I know that he will rise “in the resurrection on the last day,” implying that she doesn’t believe Lazarus will rise today.  Jesus makes another of the famous “I am” statements in this gospel:

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

This seems to me to be a confirmation of Martha’s statement about “the resurrection on the last day.”  He doesn’t really say anything specifically about raising Lazarus now.

Then Martha goes back home and tells her sister Mary that Jesus is approaching.  Mary goes out to meet him.  Mary is crying and says to Jesus that if he had been there, Lazarus would not have died.  Jesus is deeply moved and starts crying too.

Some of the Jews see Jesus’ weeping as a sign of his love for his friend Lazarus.  Others are more cynical. They say, Jesus could heal the blind man, so how come he couldn’t stop this man from dying?

Jesus approaches the tomb and tells someone to take away the stone.  Mary objects that because Lazarus has been dead for four days it will be incredibly smelly.  The stone is removed from the mouth of the tomb-cave.  Jesus thanks God out loud, and commands Lazarus to come out of the tomb.  

The formerly-dead-now-alive Lazarus exits from the tomb, all covered in burial cloths.  Jesus orders the people to take the cloths off and let him go.

What is the reaction of the crowd?  The text says some believed in Jesus, but others tattled to the Pharisees, who are deeply troubled.  They fear that if the people come to believe in Jesus then the Romans will crack down and destroy their temple and their whole nation.  The high priest Caiaphas says nope, the way to go is to have this one man die.  

He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God.  So from that day on they planned to put him to death.  (verses 51-53)

This is very clever of the gospel author.  The high priest (who, let’s face it, is the enemy in this gospel) has stated in his own words the salvation theology stated in John 3:17 - “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” 

The text says that from that day on,  the high muckety-mucks plot to kill Jesus (but they have been intending to kill Jesus since Chapter 5).  Jesus escapes to the countryside, to a town called Ephraim.  

Passover is approaching, which means that huge numbers of people are arriving in Jerusalem.  Jesus is the talk of the town.  They wonder if Jesus will show up for Passover or not.  The high priests and Pharisees get the word out that anyone who knows where Jesus is should tell them so that they can arrest him.

Metaphors:  light

Images and themes: death, life, resurrection, one man dying for many

People/Beings:   Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha, Jesus, the disciples, Thomas, people at the shiva, chief priests and Pharisees, High Priest Caiaphas.

Places: the village of Bethany in Judea, the tomb of Lazarus