December 29, 2025 // Optional Memorial of Saint Thomas Becket, Bishop and Martyr
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: 1 John 2:3-11
Reflect on the Word //
Unpacking the last lunch box in the kitchen, my eyes welled with tears. The children were doing homework, swinging on the sensory swing, sorting their Pokémon cards—and I was overwhelmed. My husband was loading the dishwasher as we were running through the week’s calendar—and I was drowning. Leaning against the kitchen counter, the tears began flowing. And flowing and flowing. I had been standing on the precipice of an emotional breakdown and now I was falling. I reached out to my doctor and set up an emergency mental health consultation.
Although intimidated by the process of looking for a new therapist, I knew that I was sitting in a dark depression that needed to be brought to light. Between my work schedule, my home schedule, the kids’ schedules, and the day-to-day overwhelm, I was wading through a dark night that needed a true light—one that is already shining. I had a consultation with a new therapist and I cried the whole time. It was freeing and cathartic and difficult. But I am comforted knowing that “the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8). In the darkest place of my depression, I am comforted by His light.
The Lord is the brightest light, and He shows us again and again that He will never leave us in darkness. When things are heavy and overwhelming, He will carry our burdens. When things feel dark and hopeless, He will give us hope. In our lowest of lows, He will bring us from the shadows.
Relate to the Lord // Has there been some dimness in your life or heart these days? Bring it to Jesus, the Light of the World, and ask Him to illuminate it with His love and hope.
Dr. Samantha Aguinaldo-Wetterholm is a wife and mom to four little ones and practices dentistry at a public health community center for low income families in the Bay Area, California. She (unashamedly) thinks ice cream is its own food group and does not leave the house without wearing sparkly earrings. She was a contributing author to All She Had. and our children’s devotional prayer book called Rise Up. Find out more about her here.
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