{"id":2463,"date":"2020-12-28T22:58:40","date_gmt":"2020-12-28T22:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/?p=2463"},"modified":"2020-12-28T22:58:40","modified_gmt":"2020-12-28T22:58:40","slug":"christmas-eve-in-small-town-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/?p=2463","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Eve in small town America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/kevin.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/kevin-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2464\" srcset=\"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/kevin-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/kevin-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/kevin.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>photo by Joe&#8230;     &#8220;Pastor Kevin&#8221; <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I attended the &#8216;Covid-outdoor&#8217; Community Christmas Service here in Bluffton Christmas Eve.  (It was 20 degrees, and actually a bit colder with the wind chill.)  It featured candles, candy canes, Christmas carols, and, well, I&#8217;m running out of words that begin with <strong>c<\/strong>.  It was tremendously moving and focused on:  What&#8217;s <em>really<\/em> at the center of this whole Christmas thing.  English Lutheran&#8217;s &#8220;Pastor Kevin,&#8221; during a brief talk, said that the spiritual reality is that Christ is the ultimate &#8220;&#8230;vaccine that leads us to eternal life.&#8221;  And his wife Debbie, during the &#8220;Children&#8217;s Time,&#8221; said the candy cane is the perfect Christmas witness symbol.  That is, upright it looks like a shepherd&#8217;s staff.  Turned the other way, it looks like the letter J (Jesus, Joy&#8230;).  What&#8217;s more, she said that by Christ&#8217;s (red) blood, we are washed white.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I attended the &#8216;Covid-outdoor&#8217; Community Christmas Service here in Bluffton Christmas Eve. (It was 20 degrees, and actually a bit colder with the wind chill.) It featured candles, candy canes, Christmas carols, and, well, I&#8217;m running out of words that <span class=\"excerpt-dots\">&hellip;<\/span> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/?p=2463\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2465,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463\/revisions\/2465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}