By Heather Melton (she/her), UTO Staff Officer

Happy Easter! Decades ago, when I first became an Episcopalian, I was told that I would love Easter because Episcopalians are “Easter people.” While I’m not sure I ever really understood what that meant, I have found Easter to be one of the most festive times in The Episcopal Church. Recently, I was telling someone who doesn’t attend church about burying “alleluias” before Lent, and how when I was a parish priest, I was very lucky because my husband dutifully marked where the alleluias were buried. The person stopped me and asked, “Wait, you literally bury the alleluias?” 

This led to a retelling of crazy Easter adventures, from supporting someone who decided we shouldn’t fill the eggs with candy as a way to tell kids about the empty tomb (which simply led to angry kids picking up eggs, shaking them, and throwing the empty eggs back on the ground) to watching an elderly priest teach the kids the hokey-pokey as part of the story of the women checking the tomb only to find it empty. Stories of kids storming through egg hunts, teenagers hiding eggs in trees to “help” me make the egg hunt more “fun,” and perhaps best of all, the first fire of Easter getting too big too fast at the Vigil. We do a lot during Holy Week in The Episcopal Church. I don’t want to brag, but I think we do it best. The creativity, the joy, the silliness, and the support are overflowing. I love Easter, and I love the idea of being an Easter person.

But what does it mean to be an “Easter person”? Over the years, I’ve given this a great deal of thought. For me, being an Easter person means embracing change and the idea that some things must die to find new life as something else. But most of all, it means being a person of hope. Hope can be hard to find sometimes. Personally, I’m having a hard time finding it these days if I’m not being intentional about it. But I think intentionality is an important part of being an Easter person. You see, Easter comes with a lot of preparation in our congregations, but it would come even if we didn’t prepare. Death and resurrection come regardless of whether we’re ready for them.

For me, this is best summed up by a line that shows up twice in the Bible: “See, I am making all things new.” It first appears in Isaiah (43:19) as the prophet retells the good works of God experienced in the book of Exodus. God says through the prophet that we shouldn’t be worried about what has happened but to be on the lookout for the new thing: “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” What I like about this line (and the translation) is that the new thing might not be flashy or catch our attention right away—we have to look for it; we have to perceive it. This same line shows up again in the book of Revelation chapter 21. Here, the writer reflects that what was is ending, and something new is beginning. God shares that God’s place is now with us, God will care for us, and the old things have come to an end. “See, I am making all things new.” God is driving resurrection all around us. Things are changing and God is making all things new, but we mustn’t forget that growth sometimes comes with pain and can be awkward and messy (let us all remember what it’s like to be in middle school), but new life is on the other side if we just keep going. 

Gratitude is about looking for the signs of new life, signs of hope, and signs of God’s dwelling among us—and responding to those things. As spring unfolded along the banks of the Rio Grande the past few weeks, my kids and I would stop conversations to point out pretty trees or trees turning yellow on the edges as leaf buds were about to unfurl. We notice, we give thanks, and we celebrate. We are Easter people. We can look around and see bad, ugly, and hurtful things and lose hope, or we can notice them and join in helping bring about resurrection. We can participate in the new thing that is happening. We can offer kindness and gentleness to ourselves and others as we participate in bringing about the new thing, because resurrection is not without its growing edges and awkward phases. We are an Easter people, a people who see that all things are being made new, a people who are reminded each week that we are invited to be a part of the resurrection by sharing our gifts with the world. So, during this Easter season, I hope you’ll take a moment to give thanks for what was and find a way to join in what God is doing all around us as God continually makes all things new. After all, we are an Easter people, and this is our moment to shine.