Bible verse wall art
Mark 10: Jesus takes the children in his arms
Mark 10 is a chapter on the road, full of people who want something from Jesus. In the middle of it come the smallest visitors of all, and the only ones who leave with exactly what they were given.
Mark 10 print
Mark 10 · King James Version
16 And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them
On the way to Jerusalem
Jesus has left Galilee and crossed into Judea by the far side of the Jordan. Crowds gather again, and the chapter moves from one encounter to the next. Pharisees test him with a question about divorce. A man runs up, kneels and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life, then goes away grieved because he has great possessions. Jesus remarks that a camel could pass through the eye of a needle more easily than a rich man enters the kingdom of God.
Later James and John ask for the seats at his right and left hand in glory. Jesus answers that the Son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. The chapter closes at Jericho, where a blind beggar named Bartimaeus calls out, receives his sight and follows him along the road.
Why were the disciples angry, and what did Jesus do?
Somewhere in this journey, parents bring young children so that Jesus might touch them. The disciples rebuke them, perhaps thinking a teacher on his way to Jerusalem has more important business. Mark alone records that Jesus was much displeased. He says, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Then he adds a warning: whoever does not receive the kingdom as a little child will not enter it.
Verse 16 is the gesture that follows, and it is the line printed on our poster: And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them. Matthew 19 and Luke 18 tell the same episode, but only Mark gives the embrace. A chapter earlier, in Mark 9, Jesus had already set a child among the disciples and taken it in his arms while they argued about who was greatest.
A child as the model
The placement is deliberate. Right after the children, the rich man arrives with all his achievements and cannot let go of them. The children bring nothing and are simply held. Mark sets the two scenes side by side so the reader feels the contrast: the kingdom is received, not earned.
That is also why this passage has been read at baptisms and child dedications for centuries, especially in churches that baptize infants. A Jesus with Children print makes a natural piece of Christian wall art for a nursery, a family room or a Sunday school classroom, and a meaningful gift for godparents.
Echoes elsewhere in Scripture
The laying on of hands to bless goes back to Genesis 48, where the aged Jacob places his hands on the heads of Joseph's two sons. Psalm 131 pictures a soul quieted like a weaned child with its mother, the same trust Jesus holds up here as the way into the kingdom.