No family picture is complete.

Perhaps you have seen one of those special family portraits that are sometimes taken during a fiftieth wedding anniversary or some such. Perhaps you’ve even been part of one. Seated in the center are the proud patriarch and matriarch, surrounded by their adult children, plus grandchildren, and perhaps also great-grandchildren. It endeavors, of course, to be a complete family portrait. And it may well be that the whole family is there for that occasion.

Yet, still, it is never a complete family picture, is it? We can think of the family members who have gone before who are no longer with us. We can imagine the family members who will marry into and be born into the family in the coming years. It may be a snapshot of the moment, but it is not a complete family pi…