[ Today's Readings ]
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.
If we want to see the things that many prophets and kings desired to see we need to be childlike enough to see it. If we are too wise and learned it is hidden from us.
The wise and the learned aren't ready for a kingdom like this where the wolf is the guest of the lamb. In our wisdom we say, 'Lambs and wolves don't act that way.' We can't imagine a leopard lying down with goat. That just isn't how they are. Are we so trapped by our own "wisdom" that we can't even imagine the simple peace the LORD longs to bring? Our own lives have things which are like this. These things just are the way they are and cannot change. Or can they?
We imagine a world where the goats, lambs, and cows, and calves are only safe without wolves, leopards, lions, or bears anywhere in the area. But children can imagine it. Though there are certainly cartoons where the carnivores are the antagonists, kids are just as ready to accept a show where they get along with the herbivores and are both protagonists.
The childlike don't have a strict category of 'impossible'. We only learn that with time. But we must unlearn what we have learned. With God all things are possible. When we realize this we are able to see the beginning of the fulfillment of God's promised peace in Jesus Christ. Both what it is and the way it comes are too simple and impossible for the world to recognize. How can the mere "breath of his lips" drive sin from the world? How can a history of atrocities be completely left behind and forgotten? Let's look at Jesus with childlike eyes and we will see how.
The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him:
a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
A Spirit of counsel and of strength,
a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,
and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.
The adult in us insists, 'He just looks like a man. Men can do nothing to truly change the plight of the world.' But the childlike see the Spirit upon him. They are ready and waiting for the justice and and peace he brings. The adult says, 'Even if it comes, it won't last.' The childlike know that he brings "the fullness of peace for ever."
He himself is the little child that guides all of the different animals into his kingdom. He himself is the peace that allows them to live together, peace he purchased on the cross. When we are childlike we recognize him. When we become little children we follow.
May his name be blessed forever;
as long as the sun his name shall remain.
In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed;
all the nations shall proclaim his happiness.
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