The Lion’s Brood

I let my mind wander at 3 AM.  Let the little thing go where it wants to.

This morning, where it wanted to go was the discussion between our own Bruce Charlton and our friend GOS.

Dr. Charlton offers a vision of the Christian life that is deeply Mormon.  It is the image of the divine family.  Warmth and love, home, patient guiding.

GOS countered with a vision of heroic self-denying service that is also deeply Christian, founded on a reading of the Gospels and later saints like Saint Paul.

My mind toyed with the contrast and tried to fit them together.

The key, I think, is that the family is divine.  They have homely comfort–but their acts and relationships are mythic in scale.

Think of Hamilcar Barca and his lion’s brood.

Think of a loving family that has the grandeur and range of an opera.  Not that the divine family has the dysfunction of an opera (though some parts do–Satan, us for now).

Yet this is a family made of Gods.

They live in simple love,

make oaths,

and overturn worlds.