{"id":456,"date":"2014-04-18T21:24:31","date_gmt":"2014-04-18T21:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/?p=456"},"modified":"2014-04-18T23:52:37","modified_gmt":"2014-04-18T23:52:37","slug":"easter-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/?p=456","title":{"rendered":"Easter People"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nOn Sunday, we will celebrate the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ; an event that ultimately changed the world and saved humankind. Many of you reading these pages will be fortunate enough to begin this celebration on East Beach, at my favorite event of the year – Easter Sunrise Service.
\nI\u2019ve always loved Easter, but like many people, the \u201choliday\u201d of Easter was eclipsed by the celebratory excitement of Christmas. This changed for me a few years ago when my mother\u2019s sister – my dear Aunt Wanda – suffered a fatal stroke and passed away on Christmas Eve. Now, you would have had to have known Aunt Wanda to understand how important Christmas was to her and her husband, Uncle Luke (his middle name was Holly!). She would shop all year for beautiful gifts for family and friends. She decorated her entire house with gorgeous, handmade ornaments, and baked delicious treats to share with her neighbors every single year. The Newsoms knew how to celebrate Christmas!
\nAunt Wanda\u2019s love of the Christmas season made the timing of her death seem unusually cruel to those of us who loved her. My mother mentioned this, in passing, to the physician on call the morning that Aunt Wanda passed away. He thought for a moment, then replied, \u201cYes, but we are Easter people.\u201d
\nWell, that says it all, doesn\u2019t it? Easter celebrates the wonderful good news that Jesus Christ was gloriously alive on that first Easter morning, and that He is sill alive among us today. It is through the living Lord in our midst that we are given the faith and will to move from darkness to light – to endure the struggles and pains of our everyday lives, and to continue in service and witness.
\nIn His light,
\nMelanie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, we will celebrate the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ; an event that ultimately changed the world and saved humankind. Many of you reading these pages will be fortunate enough to begin this celebration on East Beach, at my favorite event of the year – Easter Sunrise Service. I\u2019ve<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=456"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456\/revisions\/484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}