When I was a little kid, if I wasn't shipped off to spend the summer on my aunt and uncle's farm, I was shipped off to Nutrition Camp. I don't remember much except my expertise at playing Jacks, and this huge wall size painting of animals and a little kid that hung in the dining room. I was fascinated with the painting. The longer I looked, the more animals I found.
But later, rather than being comforted by this serene painting, I was perplexed and uncomfortable. I was a realist early on. "What is that kid doing with those wild animals? If the lion doesn't eat the lamb, what will he have to eat?"
Years later I was introduced to Edward Hicks' famous painting, The Peaceable Kingdom. I knew it wasn't by the same artist as the one at Nutriton Camp but it shared the same premise:
Isaiah 11:6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
And I felt the same range of feelings, from comfort, to total disbelief, and back again.
While I'm still skeptical at times, I've come to embrace the concept of The Peaceable Kingdom, a state of harmony among all creatures. My husband, Ken, was always full of big ideas and big goals. The biggest was the concept of Universal Reconciliation. It's kind of what I see in Hicks' paintings.
During Edward Hicks life he was seen primarily as a Quaker Preacher. Today every one of his 62 The Peaceable Kingdom paintings is valued at over a million dollars.
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