Published December 24, 2017
Bella: A Little Child Shall Lead Them
Renesmee was the size of a small child by the time of her second Christmas. Carlisle estimated she was the size of a five-year-old rather than a one-year-old.
Carlisle and Esme's gift to her was a beautifully illustrated Bible. A children's Bible might have been preferable for any other child, but Renesmee was intelligent enough that I knew the formal language would be just sufficient for her.
Edward's only concern was that some stories would be too mature for her age. Despite her rapid mental development and familiarity with violence in the supernatural world, we wanted her to stay as innocent as possible for as long as possible. We did not want to disturb her with the stories of war and incest and murder, especially at bedtime.
Still, I grinned as I flipped through the colorful pages, noting which stories Renesmee would enjoy best: Joseph's dreams, Moses in the river, Esther's bravery, the love stories of Ruth and Tobit, the poetry of the Psalms. "This should give us a lot of bedtime reading material," I said appreciatively.
Since it was Christmas, we began with the story of Jesus' birth. When she heard that the story was the reason behind the holiday, Renesmee insisted on reading it in the living room for everyone to hear.
"Jesus was like me," she remarked, startling all of us. "No one believed he could be born."
The Christmas narrative was so familiar that I stopped seeing its significance a long time ago. But now that I thought about it, as a wife and a mother, I felt more sympathetic to Mary about the stress of the unexpected pregnancy. When I thought further, I realized there were even more parallels between Jesus' birth and Renesmee's. Like us, Mary and Joseph also had to worry about people who would come after their baby. They had to flee Herod's soldiers, because he thought they were a threat to his power.
After tucking Renesmee into bed, I joined Edward in the living room of our cottage, carrying the Bible with me. We had skipped over the footnotes, but now I read them and followed them to the Old Testament passages they cross-referenced. One of them directed me to Isaiah 11. What I read surprised me, though I realized I must have heard it once or twice before, at one or another of Renee's old churches. As with the Nativity story, I read it with eyes colored by more recent experiences.
I posed a question to Edward. "Do you remember, when you first showed me the meadow, what you said about animals? You made an analogy."
"You mean—the lion fell in love with the lamb?"
"Yes! Were you thinking of a Bible passage when you said that?"
Edward's eyebrows crinkled together. "No. Why?"
"Look at this." I tapped at the verse labeled with the number 6.
Edward read it aloud. "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and that fatling together; and a little child shall lead them." He looked back up at me, his eyebrows now high on his forehead.
I smiled, took his hand, and let my shield down so he could understand the parallels I had drawn, which made more sense in my mind than they would if I tried to verbalize them. His face softened with understanding as he heard my thoughts: Edward was the lion; I had been the lamb; Jacob was the wolf; and Renesmee was the child who united our families, and had united more vampires than ever in history. She may not have led us, but she had been a force to rally behind, and a symbol of a new way of living, one founded on love and peace.