When I Consider Thy Heavens

Psalm 8:3Nursery

$24.00

At three in the morning the house is yours and the baby's. You feed him in the chair by the window, and on the wall above the low chest there is a hill before dawn, a small flock, the moon going down behind the ridge. Nothing in it needs anything from you. It gives your eyes somewhere quiet to rest in the dark hour, and it will still look right in that room when he is six. People who visit call it a watercolour landscape, and then they find the line underneath, and you get to say what it means to you.

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:

12x16 in / 30x40 cm18x24 in / 45x60 cmMost popular+ $10.0024x32 in / 60x80 cm+ $20.00

Quantity1

Fast shipping
Tracked to your door
30-day returns
Money-back guarantee
Secure payment
Encrypted checkout

Psalm 8:3

The moon going down behind the ridge

From the chair it is mostly sky. A ridge going grey at its edge, a few sheep gathered in the dip of the field, and one standing figure a little apart with a staff, not looking out at you, looking at the field. Low behind the ridge, a gold moon on its way down.

Dawn is not in the picture yet. It is the hour just before, and the field is in no hurry about it. In the dark that is what the piece gives you: somewhere to rest your eyes that asks nothing back, and a room that does not look outgrown when the cot comes out and a bed goes in.

One person sees a shepherd out with his flock before dawn. Another sees only the last hour of the night, the moon on its way down. Your own mother sees a woman awake while everyone else sleeps, looking up, because she was that woman once. The room takes all three readings without choosing between them, which is a good thing for a room where someone is growing up.

Watercolour print of a shepherd and a small flock on a hill before dawn, hung in a nursery

From the artist

What I keep looking at is the moon

Maren Hale

Arrivals and still places

I keep going back to the moon. It sits low behind the ridge, already half gone, and it is still the brightest thing on the hill. Everything else is waiting. The sheep have folded themselves into the dip of the field. The one standing figure has been there a long time and does not seem tired of it. I like that the light is not here yet. I like the field holding its breath.

What I hope, for whoever hangs this: that on the nights you are the only one awake, the room feels less like a room you are stuck in and more like a hill with someone already watching over it. That the hour goes gently. That you look up once, and the looking up is enough.

Nursery bible verse wall art

Bought while the room is being made, or sent by her mother

The hill and gold moon seen close, framed in black wood on a nursery wall

One woman buys it for herself, in the weeks when the room is still half a room. She wants one thing on that wall that is not primary colours and not a cartoon, because art choices get to be completely personal. She already knows that someday he will be too big to hold like this, and she picks the picture she wants to be looking at while she still can.

The other is her own mother, who sat in that chair thirty years ago and remembers it exactly. She cannot take the three o'clock hour off her daughter. She can say the days are long but the years are short, and send something calm to look at while the hour lasts.

It hangs above the low chest of drawers beside the nursing chair, at eye height from the chair, and the 45x60 takes a companion well as the left half of a pair.

Choose a size

When I consider the heavens

What arrives

170 gsm matte uncoated paper Print only comes as a single sheet, printed to its edges, no shine under a nursery lamp.
12 mm black wood frame Flat square profile, 22 mm deep, matte, plexiglass front and no mat, so the hill runs to the inner edge. Coated silk paper inside.
Three sizes 30x40, 45x60 and 60x80 cm. The 45x60 sits right above a low chest of drawers, on its own or as one of a pair.
Giclee print The greys stay grey and the moon keeps its gold, which is the whole picture at that hour.

For the 3am hour

A few things people ask

1.What does Psalm 8:3 say about the moon and the stars?

In the King James words it reads: when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained. It sits in a short psalm of David that opens and closes with the same line about God's name in all the earth. The scene here is the last hour before dawn, when the moon is the only thing still up, because that is the hour the verse tends to find people.

2.What does what is man that thou art mindful of him mean?

That line is the next one in the same psalm, Psalm 8:4, asked by someone standing out under the night sky. David leaves it as a question rather than an answer. We leave it there too, and let the picture keep it open.

3.What is a calm bible verse for a nursery?

Psalm 8:3 is one, and so is Psalm 4:8, I will both lay me down in peace and sleep. For a room you will sit in at night, a line that is quiet rather than instructive tends to wear better, because you will read it a thousand times in the dark. The verse reference here is set small at the bottom, so the picture is what you see first.

4.Which size suits the wall above a chest of drawers?

The 45x60 cm is the usual choice above a low chest, hung so the ridge sits near eye height from the nursing chair. Take the 60x80 cm for a wider wall where the piece hangs alone. The 30x40 cm fits a narrow stretch beside the door or above a bookshelf.

5.Will it still suit the room when the baby is older?

It is a watercolour landscape, not cartoon decor, so there is nothing in it to grow out of. Most people who visit read it as a hill and a flock and only find the verse line afterwards. When the cot goes, it moves to a hallway or a bedroom and looks like it was always meant for there.

Psalm 8