A contemporary theme in both books and movies is dystopia — that the future is going to be a disaster. The prophet Isaiah has a different vision, a utopia where God’s reign of peace and justice will triumph. There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD, as water covers the sea. That seems to have been the perspective of Jesus as well when he holds up as an ideal “the child-like.” You can’t imagine a child creating a dsytopia — they can find something wonderful in a plain cardboard box. The challenge for us is to buck the cultural trend of pessimism and discouragement and instead trust that God’s plan is unfolding according to a timeline we are not privy to.
