A particular style of Christmas card has been in vogue for the past 20 years, in which the traditional Holy Family is displaced by the sender’s family looking, if not quite holy, then certainly very good. Clean and shiny parents and children are pictured happily together in an attractive setting, such as a verdant backyard. Whatever one thinks of this transmutation, there is no doubting that such photographs capture a widely shared ideal. They are redolent of love, unity, a somewhat saccharine self-satisfaction, and great, good spirits.

A picture in this genre, of Amy Coney Barrett’s family, has circulated since President Trump nominated the mother of seven to fill the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat. What’s additionally pleasing and impressive in the photo is that two of the children are black, as far removed racially as they are obviously close emotionally to the other seven, white family members. They are Vivian and John Peter, adopted Haitian orphans who bring the Barrett family to a robust nine souls.