Is the violence and hatred of the world inevitable? In the second of her reflections for Advent, Theodora Hawksley suggests that this is a time to prepare to enter into the vulnerability of the Nativity scene

The Quaker artist Edward Hicks painted the scene described in this Sunday’s reading (Isaiah 11:1-10), or variations on it, more than 60 times. In the best-known version, the right side of the canvas is occupied by a menagerie of animals: a toddler strokes a leopard on the nose, a lion and an ox chew on a maize stalk, and a conflicted-looking lion is petted by a small child. On the left side of the canvas, William Penn and some stout, stockinged colonists are peacefully engaging with a party of Native Americans. A green, light-filled valley stretches away in the background.

In playing with this composition, over and over again, Hicks was also playing with a question: what would it look like if our social relationships came close to that vision of the kingdom? The answer might be hidden away in a single line of this week’s reading from Paul: “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Romans 15:7).