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Mexican artist Zury Jennings has always been passionate about connecting her artwork to her Christian faith. She studied visual arts at undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as theology and counseling at Covenant Seminary, where she also served as Art Curator at the Francis Schaeffer Institute. She is currently a missionary living in West Africa with her beloved husband Collin, and enjoys exploring African elements in her artwork.
One of those artworks is the fabric collage above. She created it for her church in West Africa by putting together colorful, discarded scraps of African print fabric. It is a picture of Psalm 1, which says, "Blessed is the one. . . whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers" (NIV).
This image features an open Bible at the foot of a giant Baobab tree, which grows in many parts of Africa. A life-sustaining stream runs across the bottom left corner next to the tree. The Baobab is revered for its extraordinary longevity and medicinal properties, and is therefore referred to as the "Tree of Life." Because of this positive (and biblical!) imagery, Zury decided to use it on the banner, which directly connects it to the study and application of God's Word. Because Baobab trees grow in the area around her church, and also because many local people wear clothes made of print fabrics, it is a beautiful and positive example of biblical contextualization, or the incorporation of something from the local "context" to better explain God's Word.
May more of God's churches around the world use their artists to create beautiful works like these out of the materials He has provided, in order to draw more people to Himself!
