IT'S AN astonishing statement the prophet Isaiah made. "The wolf," he said, "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; and a little child shall lead them." Isa. 11:6.
This vision of peaceful unity among God's creatures never fails to inspire me. And I find it interesting that Isaiah's prophecy doesn't homogenize this glorious mix of animals into one single species. Each one remins distinct and individual, fulfilling its own particular role in the infinitude of God's creation. Yet those varied roles blend into one harmonious whole, without violence, competition, or acrimony.
Unity, of course, is not uniformity. It is a spiritual oneness, expressed in valuable and practical diversity. As Mary Baker Eddy put it, "God has countless ideas, and they all have one Principle and parentage ... Even eternity can never reveal the whole of God, since there is no limit to infinitude or to its reflections." Science and Health, p. 517.
