The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together . . . –Isaiah 11:6 (King James Version)
I have inherited my grandmother's crèche which I set out every Christmas, and I always put my beautiful carved wooden lion in the stable with the Family. It wasn't until yesterday when I was reading my friend Mac's wonderful meditation with the above quote that I realized that was no doubt from whence the idea came to me.
I've always loved that Bible quote, which I'm fairly certain I first heard in Bible School as a little girl. It occurs to me that is probably what made we have ceased fighting everything and everybody relatively easy for me to accept. At least I found out it was relatively easy for me when I started quoting it to others...talk about freak-out. I was stunned...still am...at the all-but-rabid rejection of the very thought of not fighting.
I've come to accept that to the resisters "not fighting" represents having no control...of being subjected to others' dictates without a by-your-leave. That is a wholly one-sided view, of course, with the viewer never going a step further to realize not fighting applies to him, too...to her, to them.
That's why the image of the wolf dwelling with the lamb, the leopard with the kid is so positive and so calming. Who imagines the wolf with fangs drawn, the lamb shaking in its wool, or the leopard with the kid hanging out of its mouth? No. We picture them each surrendered to the other, all others...in peace. One.
We, the World, can never know peace, never be at One, unless and until we cease fighting everything and everybody...starting with our very own self.
Give over, give up, give in...with love and laughter.
Thank you.
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