In June of 2023 I collaborated with long time friend and faithful artistic champion / client Dr. Sarah Marsh. My wife and I have known and loved Sarah since our college years, and have watched in awe as she has worked tirelessly to earn her MD, marry and expand her delightful family, and get her certification as a pediatric doctor. I was humbled when she came to me to ask to create a work of art to hang in her pediatric practice as a blessing to her patients, families, and fellow staff. “Let the Children Come to Me” was born out of our discussions about her vision for the painting based on the passages in Matthew, Mark, and Luke where Jesus tells his distracted and self important disciples to allow the (seemingly insignificant) children to come to him. I intentionally included specific figures in reference of Sarah’s three daughters and diverse clientele, celebrating the diversity and beauty of God’s expansive love to humanity. In a day of heightened division and open hostility between warring nations, political ideologies, religions, and races, Jesus’ message of love is more relevant than ever.
As I worked on this painting, I realized that despite its much larger scale, it is the same physical proportion as my earlier Lausanne Movement Four Pillar Paintings and carries the same global DNA vision of God’s Kingdom as the other works, this time focusing specifically on children. As the Lausanne Movement prepares for the L4 global gathering in Seoul, Korea in Oct. 2024, I feel this work is a harbinger of the vision yet to come. Evangelical leaders from every region will be gathering to plan to accomplish the “Whole Church, bringing the Whole Gospel, to the Whole World” by 2050 (scripture translated into every language, a christian presence in every community on earth = the four pillars of Lausanne). In 2050, those who are only children now, or are not yet even born, will be our young and emerging leaders. As we plan to gather at L4 to hear God’s heart for the Great Commission in our day, may we not forget to “Let the Children Come” with us so that we can stay with them in the arms of Jesus.
Here are the four pillars of Lausanne with “Let The Children Come to Me” added beside them:
1) The gospel for every person on earth
2) A Christ centered church for every community
3) A Christ-like leader for every church
4) The Kingdom in every sphere of society
*) Every generation at work in the Great Commission.