Isaiah 11:6-10

“The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.” vs. 6

We really don’t know much about Isaiah. Oh, we know that he was a prophet and that he lived in Jerusalem a long time ago, but other than that there’s little information about him. What we do know is that he was a superlative and imaginative writer–his carefully crafted elegant words have inspired and emboldened believers for thousands of years. The images of this one sentence have captured our imaginations and enabled us to dream that someday the impossible will be a reality. People will be able to sit at table with one another: black and white, Muslim and Christian, Russian and Ukrainian, Israeli and Hamas–and there will be peace on earth. Right now it may well be that our imaginations fail us–but we’re not in charge. Isaiah said that the reconciliation of the peaceable kingdom would be led by a little child, and we dare to hope that perhaps that child has been born, maybe in a manger, and lives among us. As we move into Advent and begin to wrap our minds around God’s promise of hope, it’s good to remember that God’s endgame is more spectacular than we have ever dreamed, and if we allow the Child to lead, perhaps we’ll be able to see wolves lying down with lambs. It’s a vision worth hanging on to!

Thought for the Day: What impossible dreams am I dreaming?