A Vision I'm Too Small For

In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard and the goat will be at peace. Calves and yearlings will be safe among lions, and a little child will lead them all. The cattle will graze among bears. Cubs and calves will lie down together. And lions will eat grass as the livestock do. Babies will crawl safely among poisonous snakes. Yes, a little child wil put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes and pull it out unharmed. Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. And as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.
--Isaiah 11:6-9

Quite an interesting mental image, isn't it? A wolf and a lamb standing calmly in the same pasture, a bear and a young calf sleeping side by side, and a young child walks safely and surely among them all. Such a nice and picturesque scene, eh?

And I don't buy it. I just don't.

Allow me to explain. I am not saying that I think it is impossible, or that God has lied or otherwise claimed something that He is incapable of doing or unwilling to bring about.

What I am saying is that my heart, my mind, and my soul simply don't lean that way. I have so long lived in a world corrupted by its own selfishness, greed, malice, and violence that I am incapable of taking such an image as an authentic reality. My mind is incapable of comprehending a state of absolute peace, and my heart is unwilling to accept that the ultimate bend of history is toward peace--that God will truly make all things well.

In the end, it seems that the root issue here is not that the vision Isaiah describes is too big to be real, but rather that I am simply too small to endure it.

Anyone else feel this way?