Suffer the Little Children

Mark 10:14Nursery

$24.00

At two in the morning the house is quiet and you are the only one awake, feeding him in the chair by the window. On the wall you face there is a crowd painted in soft washes, opening in the middle to let a mother carry her small one through, and one figure bending down to meet the arrival. It asks nothing of you. It is warm to look at when the nights are long, and it will still suit the room when he is six. Guests stop in front of it and ask who painted it.

1. Select your Finish: Print only

170 gsm archival matte paper, ships rolled

Print only

Perfect for self-framing

Framed+ $35.00

2. Select your Size:

18x24 in / 45x60 cmMost popular+ $10.0012x16 in / 30x40 cm24x32 in / 60x80 cm+ $20.00

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Nursery scripture print gift Mark 10:14

Nobody had to make a case for the child

From the chair you see it whole. A press of figures in muted washes, robes the colour of weak tea and dust, and down the middle of them a gap that was not there a moment ago. A woman moves into that gap with a bundle held high against her shoulder. At the far end, one figure in white is already bending.

Nothing in it is loud. The colours stay soft under a low lamp at night and steady in daylight, which is the whole point of it: it belongs to the baby's room now, and it will lift off the hook and go with him to the next one without looking like something he has outgrown.

People read it differently. One friend sees a crowd opening to let someone through. Your mother sees a child carried past every reason to be turned away. You mostly see someone bending down to meet a small arrival. Nobody needs it explained, and the room it hangs in reads as one you thought about rather than filled.

From the artist

The gap opens before anyone asks

Maren Hale

Arrivals and still places

I keep coming back to the gap. It opens in the middle of all those shoulders, and the light finds it first, low and warm, before anyone has spoken. The white figure is already lowering himself. His hands have not arrived. Neither has the child. That half step of distance is what I cannot stop looking at, a reach held still so it never has to land.

Nothing in the scene hurries. The crowd is not pushing, the mother is not pleading, the dust in the air stays soft. I hope that in a room where someone is awake at an hour nobody chose, this is the calm thing to look at: a way already open, and nothing in it asking to be earned.

Scripture print gift

Two people choose this one

One is the grandmother or godmother buying for the dedication. The drawer is already full of sleepsuits, and she has heard the parents say they truly do not want more stuff, they have everything they need. She wants to hand over something that stays in the house, and something she can say a few words about when it is unwrapped.

The other is the mother herself, three weeks in, who worked out that decorating the nursery is for her too. She wanted a warm, soothing thing to look at while she fed the baby in the small hours, not a slogan in pastel lettering, so she ordered the large one for herself.

It hangs on the wall the feeding chair faces, at seated eye level rather than over the cot, and it comes off that hook easily when he moves to a bigger room.

Choose a size

Baby dedication gift

What arrives in the box

170 gsm paper Print only comes as a matte uncoated sheet, printed to its edges. Framed uses 170 gsm coated silk behind the plexiglass.
Black wood frame, 12 mm A flat square profile 12 mm wide and 22 mm deep, matte finish, plexiglass front, no mat, the picture running to the inner edge.
Three sizes 30x40 cm, 45x60 cm and 60x80 cm (12x16, 18x24 and 24x32 in). The 60x80 is the one that holds a wall on its own.

Christian wall art nursery

What mothers and godmothers ask first

1.Where in the Bible does it say suffer the little children?

Matthew 19:14, in the King James words on this piece: suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me. The same moment is told again in Mark 10 and Luke 18. We leave the meaning where scripture puts it and let the scene stay open.

2.Why is one child drawn ahead of everyone else?

The scene was built as a road, so you can see who is walking and who has stopped. Three grown-ups are halted partway along while the small one keeps going, and at the end of the road someone is already waiting. Some people read that as being let through, others as being met. Both readings are true to the verse.

3.Is this a good gift for a baby dedication or baptism?

It is often bought for exactly that, by a grandmother or an aunt who wants a keepsake rather than another verse blanket. Churches also give it to the woman who keeps the nursery every week. If you want to say something with it, the simplest line is that her child was always welcome here.

4.What size print works above a cot?

The 60x80 cm holds a wall above a standard cot and still reads from the doorway, which is where you often stand. The 45x60 cm suits a narrower wall or a spot beside a changing table. The 30x40 cm is better on a shelf or next to a door frame.

5.Will it look like a nursery slogan?

No. It is a soft watercolour map with faceless figures and one small white accent, and the verse reference is the only text. Guests tend to ask about the road before they notice it is scripture at all.

Nursery christian wall art