Universal At Onement

Whether it's some unified field theory in Physics, Zion of one heart and mind in a religious context, or the constitutional ideal of a more perfect Union, we seem to have an innate human need to find unifying answers. I suppose the philosophical Darwinists of human behavior call this one of those traits generations bred into our genes for species survival. But it sure seems that we, like the poet Yeats, want a power to unite what may be whirling out from a center that cannot hold.

Stop. Hold on. That's what I choose to do. The alternatives only lead me to despair.

Yesterday, I was in a discussion of historiography and how everything in the past seems to connect if we search long and hard enough. Some links are quite easy as they surprise us with an established connection previously missed or unknown. This seems to be the essence of family history work and the principal reason for LDS temples to seal families and generations to heal the wounds that otherwise would spin us out to oblivion.

Family isn't easy. Is there a family anywhere that doesn't have its challenges? That's the wrong word. More often it is pain, misunderstanding, anger, abuse. If you're blessed not to have it bad now, just try back a few generations. No wonder things fall apart. There is still progress in the unified field theory of my extended family. In spite of some things that will go unexplained, something keeps pulling us together.

I know of no other philosophy of united, eternal families sealed by the power of God. That is the essential beauty of LDS belief and practice. And no one is left to spin off to hell for not thinking or believing the same in the here and now as ordinances can be provided by proxy for the dead. The temples unites us across time and death through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The sealing power accomplishes the purposes of the Atonement by restoring families to their center in Christ healing pain, sorrow, separation, and death.

Faith,

Hope,

Charity.

The center will hold.