Joseph is holding a lamp as he checks out the little cave/manger that his wife is going to deliver a child in. It's a beautiful picture, and yes, it will look good on your wall, but we want to think of Joseph for a minute here. He looks a little, well, concerned. If he's like us, he's thinking, I'm the protector here, and I could have done better. We could have left Nazareth a few days sooner. Maybe. He was doing his best, but maybe he was thinking he could have done better.

Maybe not! Maybe he'd done what he could do and was thinking, Lord, this must be your will. It's hard to know, short of a revelation from him. Anyway, Joseph is a worker, like most of us. Mary, who works at the home life, is floating in, serene and holy. She's not worried about it at all. She is full of grace, totally. I heard a doctor say today that the pregnant mother is like one single being composed of two people, mother and child. It reminded me of the Trinity. It also reminded me, when our children were little, I noticed how they said, Mom-me!

We hope this picture brings you meditation and spiritual value. We hope that all our pictures have spiritual value, not just eye candy for the walls. Michael Rieser. (Austrian, 1828–1905) did a lot of spiritually valuable paintings, including many church frescos in Vienna. He taught painting for 20 years, and one of his students was Gustav Klimt.

** IMPORTANT ** THE IMAGE IS SMALLER THAN THE PAPER! There is a blank border around the image. Approximately 0.5" wide for 5x7, 1.3" for 8.5x11, 1.6" for 11x14, and 1.75" for 13x17 and 16x20. For the two poster sizes, 18x24 and 24x36, we use 0.5" borders. We do this because the ratio of the rectangle of the art almost never matches the rectangle of the paper, and if it did happen to match one size, it would not match the others. Most fine art printers do this because otherwise they’d have to crop the art or warp it to make it fit the paper. The border looks good. It gives the picture a faux matted appearance.

There is almost always a little more border either on the left-right sides, or the top-bottom, depending on whether the ratio of the art is wider or taller than the paper.

We make Archival Quality fine art prints:

– Acid-free paper

– Archival pigments

– Cardboard backer for sizes 11x14 and less.

– Above story of the art

– Enclosed in a tight-fitting, crystal-clear bag.

– Rated to last 200 years without fading if kept dry and out of the direct sun.

Thanks for your interest!

JMJ

Sue & John

Lincoln, Nebraska

You might also enjoy original Catholic Art and Jewelry by me, Sue Kouma Johnson, here on Etsy at www.Etsy.com/shop/TreeOfHeaven

Also, check out our Catholic Quote shop, where we are pairing authentic quotes from Saints with Art: www.Etsy.com/shop/CatholicQuote

“In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art.”

~ St. Pope John Paul II

Original image is out-of-copyright. Descriptive text and any image alterations (hence the whole new image) © by Sue Kouma Johnson – Classic Catholic Art.