Finally, a response...

These thoughts might be very disconnected, and they may not make sense.
Reading the gospels like this, pieces at a time, makes it very clear how different John is from the Synoptics. Maybe it's because it's the last thing I read, but what's sticking in my mind now is John. "For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed." This is so amazingly true. Maybe it's just me, but any time I drift away from the church for any length of time, I find the thought of God really negative. I don't want to think about church or God or religion...I just don't want to think about any of it. "But those who do what is true may come into the light, so that it may clearly be seen that their deeds have been done in God." This makes me wonder. It's so hard to know if what we do is done through God or just in ourselves. I spend hours a day practicing trumpet. Is God in all of that, or is it something else pulling me away from Him? It's hard to find holiness in a 6x6 practice room. Is there such a thing as neither one or the other? Are there actions that have nothing whatsoever to do with God, but that aren't detrimental? (Wow, that was quite a tangent.)
John's cleansing of the temple comes early. That's interesting to me. I can see wonderful symbolism in the beginning and the end. As in John, at the beginning--the old corruption and broken ways are being tossed aside. Something new is coming, and the trash we've filled the temple with has to go away now. The cleansing of the temple is probably one of my favorite parts of the gospels. It's such an amazingly prophetic action, and I find a new emotion of love and strength each time I read it.
I wish we had more of an account of Jesus growing up, even if it's not really vital, I guess. There's one year that Anne Rice writes about in Christ the Lord out of Egypt, but I'm not really sure if I liked that book. Has anyone else read it?
Sorry for the rambling and focus on John. Thanks if you read this far.