Chainsaw Art

Chainsaw artists are on the lookout for tree stumps. Then they do their magic. The text speaks of a stump, but there is something quite special going on here.

Although The New Interpreter’s Bible says “Few texts in biblical literature are better known or loved” than Isaiah 11:1-10, it’s unlikely that this reading has left you quivering with excitement. In fact, you could argue that it’s an outright and ridiculous exaggeration.

Here are just a few texts that are surely “better known or loved” than this obscure text in Isaiah:

• Psalm 23
• Psalm 100
• The story of creation
• Moses and the parting of the Red Sea
• The Ten Commandments
• David and Bathsheba
• David and Goliath
• The story of Ruth
• The story of Jericho
• The nativity story in Luke 2
• John 3:16
• Revelation 20:1-6
• To name a few!

 

So, what’s to be done with this text? People today probably don’t care that Jesus came from the stump of Jesse (v. 1).

But some people care about stumps. George Kenny of Allyn, Washington, for example.   

Kenny is an artist, but to see his work, you may want to put on a pair of...