The Powerful become Humble
Isaiah 11.1-10
Trying not to write directly about being grafted into the Kingdom of God is difficult when the reading starts with a branch. We also see in the Isaiah reading the call of how strange the Kingdom will be. The term upside down kingdom is one thrown around about the sayings of Jesus; it is odd, it is unusual. Isaiah 11.4-8 has a similar way about it,
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.
All the beasts will suddenly not be "beasts". A wolf doesn't come out of the woods and finds a nice fluffy sheep to snuggle and be warm with. Nor a lion etc. Interestingly, these powerful creatures listed, the non-domesticated ones are also being led by a child, even to the point of a child clumsily playing over a snake's borrow will be safe, a child inquisitively will block another borrow will be safe. Children are uplifted to the most powerful in this scenario. Children are learning in a safe manner. I don't trust a child with my cat because I know my house cat can be vicious, and I would never leave a toddler in the room with my tarantula which can actually kill them. This is a new safety.
I think sin is more complicated at times and the fall brings the consequence, Jesus brings the salvation but first there was love. Back in the garden Adam and Eve were not drones but were learning how to live with creation. Now tainted by the fall, yet we are being called to be more childlike. It involves making mistakes, as adults we can be calculated but without mistakes we don't learn actually what it means to be a child.
