A Little Child Shall Lead Them

Isaiah 11:6
"The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them."


I have had a sort of a prayer and exhortation relationship, mostly via the Internet, with a number of people over the years. Taking a cue from Jesus, I like to use images and stories that can communicate a point in a way that's easy to grasp. Two stories that I like to reference to illustrate a point are the fable "Stone Soup" and the fairy tale "The Emperor's New Clothes". Before putting together this blog entry, I went to look up both stories to make sure that I was quoting them correctly, and found to my amazement that the description of the first story cited the other as an opposite theme! It reminded me of the following description of the seemingly upside-down kingdom of God found in Matt. 19:30: "But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."

"The Emperor's New Clothes" is perhaps better-known. It tells about an emperor who hired two itinerant taylors to make him a new set of clothes. Due to his insecurity and dependence on the approval of others, he believed their claim that the cloth was so fine that it couldn't be detected by anyone who was stupid or unfit for their position, and pretended to be able to see the cloth lest he be exposed as a fraud. He went so far as to carry his bluff that he could see the clothes to the extent of participating in a parade down the village's main street in his birthday suit. Everyone else also played the game, except for a little child who declared the obvious--the emperor wasn't wearing any clothes!

"Stone Soup" is also about travellers who also tell creative stories. They drag into a village hungry and looking for help. Unfortunately, they've happened onto a place that's fallen on hard times, and no one wants to share what little they have horded away with each other, much less with strangers. The travellers start a pot in the center of the square, and toss a "magic" stone into it that somehow promises a fantastic pot of soup. It could, however, use a little something to dress it up a bit. First one, and then another, of the villagers extract their hidden soup ingredients until the whole village has a pot of soup greater than the sum of its parts.

There is a third story that also comes to mind that's supposed to illustrate the difference between heaven and hell. For all practical purposes, it sounds more like the intended difference between the kingdom of God and the world:

A man dreamed that he was taken by an angel to view both heaven and hell. His eyes were opened to them both, and he was astounded to find that they looked identical at first glance! He was very troubled and asked the angel to explain. In both places, a large number of people were seated at a huge banquet table filled with food--but their hands were bound behind them so that no one could eat.

The angel urged him to look more closely, where he saw the difference: the people in hell stared sadly at their food without eating, while those in heaven clumsily but effectively were able to feed the people next to them and be fed in turns by lifting their forks with their mouths to feed the one next to them.

All of us are limited by circumstance, challenge, or some other hindrance. We can either close in our ourselves in desperation to hold onto what little we have until our lives are perfect and we feel completely secure, or choose to be taught to participate in the compassion of God by allowing Him to show us someone to whom we can offer help or comfort, however imperfectly. They may offer some back then, or later, or not be able to do so, but our reward from God will be seen in some other way. Participating in His nature is reward in itself, but scripture shows us how compassion was intended to be expressed between us in practical ways. As the earth groans more as His day approaches, we may need to find greater depths of sharing His character and sharing what's in our spiritually and naturally in our hand. I can attest to the fact that even clumsy attempts by His body to reach toward each other bring a strong sense of His presence. "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20). He can't be looking for something so complicated that it's beyond us, because He said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." (Mk. 10:14b)


Luke 10:21
"At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure."