Vision
/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.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the
ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
-Isaiah 11:6-9
Edward Hicks was a 19th century Quaker elder in Pennsylvania, and was also a folk artist and decorative painter. Isaiah 11 was a foundational and inspirational passage for him, judging by how many times he created another version of this motif, “The Peaceable Kingdom.” 62 versions of this painting by Hicks still exist, and he probably painted it dozens more times on walls in homes that have long since been painted or papered over. The version above is a painting owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it was painted during a time of schism among the Quakers, which the museum says iis represented in the image by the broken tree. It’s as if Hicks was using the imagery from Isaiah to paint - and pray - peace into his quarreling siblings in faith. Many of his paintings included a view, in the distance, of William Penn arriving by boat and greeting the Native Americans. Some say this represents Hick’s belief that Penn brought Quakerism, and therefore a taste of the peaceable kingdom, to Pennsylvania. Despite it being said that Penn’s relationship with the local tribes was positive and respectful as compared to other European settlers, I wonder if his repeated use of that image was another way Hicks was painting and praying peace into the many painful conflicts that occurred between settlers and native people.
Life always includes conflicts, schisms and clashes between peoples and nations. How do we choose to witness to inevitable human struggles? It’s not hard to look around today and see that people often choose to find ways to profit from our human struggles, and to focus on the needs of self before the needs of all. But Isaiah’s vision is for all people - not just a few. How can we live into this vision of a peaceable kingdom, when struggles have the potential to wreak havoc in any effort we may make? How can we carry hope forward in times of anxiety, conflict and hatred?
After a rather anxious and fraught year in our political world, Advent is a welcome invitation to enter into a new church year by opening ourselves anew to God’s vision of peace, love and reconciliation. It’s a season to abide the darkness and yet seek the light with our minds and souls awake to God’s vision rather than just our own. We many never have actually seen a bear and a cow grazing on a hillside together, or a lamb and a wolf living peaceably together, but in the advent darkness, we are called to pray ourselves into God’s dream - into a more tender, life giving and peaceable branch somehow sprouting out of the fallen and dead stump of our often violent world.
As people of faith, we are called to paint a very different picture for this hurting world to see, and to pray all our conflicts into the infinitely compassionate heart of God.
