excerpt from novel

"They call me a master carpenter," Li Wen said. "Compared to you, I am but a novice."

They worked together, master and apprentice, building and fashioning, using a simple wood chisel and a plane, doing with their hands what no machinery could.

"You hands are so skilled and powerful," Li Wen said. "Yet so delicate."

"I have much experience building. And these hands are familiar with wood."

"Anything I ever built in the Shadowlands was nothing compared to this."

.......

As Li Wen rubbed the wood grain with his hands, the King stood back and said, "There--it is finished." He smoothed His hand over the chair's arms and stood back, smiling. "This chair is made for Li Wen. Sit."

"No. I cannot. It is much too beautiful. I am not worthy."

"I decide who receives My gifts. Sit down....you can take it with you to My new earth. It will sit in the great house of Li."

"Thank you my Master. Li Wen is most unworthy."

"Don't you think I know who's unworthy and who isn't?" the King asked, laughing. "Li Wen once built a chair for Me. I do not forget such things. I am pleased now to have built one for him. And, remember, you assisted Me in building it."

"But this chair is far beyond anything Li Wen could ever build."

"What you do for Me has never equaled what I do for you, has it?"

"No. Never."

"So let us not imagine it should be different now."



Safely Home by Randy Alcorn