Baby Moses in the Reeds, Exodus 2:10 Nursery Art

What is painted

Clear pale water ripples around an oval wicker basket. Inside, a round-cheeked baby sleeps swaddled in cream cloth, his head on a pink blanket whose fringed corner slips over the side and trails toward the river. Tall cattails and grassy reeds grow up on both sides, framing him like a little hiding place, and two pink butterflies drift past on the right.

The style is a soft storybook watercolor in sage green, reed brown, powder blue and rose, with lots of cream paper left bare. The words sit above the picture in a rounded type: “Because I drew him out of the water.” Exodus 2:10 is written underneath in smaller letters.

Why Moses got his name

The story opens in fear. Pharaoh has ordered that every Hebrew baby boy be thrown into the Nile. One mother hides her son for three months, and when she can hide him no longer, she makes him an ark of bulrushes, seals it with slime and pitch, and sets it among the flags at the river's edge. His sister stands at a distance to see what will become of him.

Pharaoh's daughter comes down to the river to wash, sees the basket and opens it. The baby cries, and she has compassion on him. The sister steps forward and offers to find a Hebrew nurse, and so the child is handed back to his own mother to raise, now under royal protection.

Verse 10 tells what happened when the boy grew: he was brought to Pharaoh's daughter, became her son, and she named him Moses, saying “Because I drew him out of the water.” The Hebrew name sounds like the verb for drawing out. It is a quiet foreshadowing, because the child drawn out of the water will one day lead his whole people out through the sea.

A nursery print with a story in it

This is a gentle choice for parents who want a Bible story above the crib rather than a slogan. The sleeping baby and the butterflies are easy for small children to spot, and the story of the basket is one they will ask to hear again.

It makes a thoughtful baby shower or baptism gift, and it speaks tenderly to families who waited a long time for a child or welcomed one through adoption, since Moses was raised by a mother who chose him. As Christian wall art for a child's room it stays calm and soft enough for a boy or a girl.

Each Christian poster is made to order on thick archival matte paper, in sizes from 5x7 up to 24x36 as well as metric formats, and ships without a frame.