Do not let babies play with venomous snakes. It does not take parenting books, care guidelines, or child protection policies to teach us that; the thought of a chubby infant arm reaching into the den of a coiled, poisonous serpent is enough to send a shudder up even the stiffest spine. Yet Isaiah gives us precisely this image of defenseless flesh meeting deadly power as an image of the fulfillment of God’s promise, of the very kingdom of God.

Isaiah’s prophetic vision announces an ideal leader and a kingdom in which all creatures live in harmony with one another, in which the calf and the lion and the lamb all lie down together. Christians know this image, sometimes called the Peaceable Kingdom, so well that it can start to seem sweet and simple. These are, however, pictures of tremendous risk; the defenseless and the deadly dwell together. All boundaries of “safety” and “threat” have been transformed. The Peaceable Kingdom offers possibilities for relationship where before there was only risk.

Until the Peaceable Kingdom comes in its fullness, it is probably wise not to let children play with vipers and cobras. In this season of Advent, however, we look toward the transformative power of an infant who reaches toward the dangerous, deadly, venomous violence of the world. As followers of Christ called to live into the kingdom of God, we too may have encounters with people, situations, and hard truths that send a shudder up our spine. We may feel that our vulnerable flesh, our weakness, is exposed to deadly powers. Where might our ideas of danger and defense need to be transformed? Where might risk give way to relationship in our lives?