(c)2009 NPT PHOTO BY DAVID POPIEL

Looking like an angel, the chestnut doors of the cabinet are open revealing the Biblical story
engraved on its inside back panel. Johnny Thomas did much of the engraving for cabinet
builder George Trent, of Marshall Hollow Road.

The harvest moon looked almost out of place low on the horizon, large and orange as it just emerged from the distant mountains above our hometown, yet offers some comfort of clear days, cooler and drier, as we prepare to salute our veterans on Wednesday.

Last week we began talking about George R. Trent and his unusual cabinet with Biblical themes. Having seen it twice and photographed it, I began describing it to you and will continue that here.

The white poplar wood he "worked out at Del Rio" sawing larger thicker boards at the Old Fifteenth on a bandsaw, "Because Jesus was the most popular man on earth."

Cedar is commonly found in the county, known as Juniper with its red and white tinged aromatic heart. "It represents the incense" from the Bible's description of the incense, offered to God. "It's a Biblical wood. Gene Bradshaw helped me with this"

Red oak is strong and beautiful and often seen in furniture. To George it signifies the strength and blood of Jesus. His friend Johnny Thomas of Parrottsville donated the red oak and helped with the intricate burned engravings. Johnny also has had his dark valleys with drugs and has overcome this, said George, recalling how close Johnny was to death, due to illness, not many months ago. Johnny worked alongside George and others at Legacy.

Lowe's had the thick yellow pine boards to be used for the 26-point cabinet crown that encompasses the top-"The Lord is the crown." Underneath and inside the cabinet is some white willow-weeping willow. "I've never used or seen it used. Preacher Askew had a small dead willow in his yard" and donated it to George, who cut it up into small strips. "It represents all the tears that have been shed."

The sixth wood, but not necessarily in that number order, is wormy chestnut. It symbolizes the "endurance of time" and is today a much-sought-after cabinet wood. The planks he and Johnny got were planned and used for the four doors.

The seventh and final wood on the cabinet is dogwood. You cannot miss the six pale crosses on the cabinet face made of dogwood. He found the wood in his own backyard, cut the small tree down, and made the six crosses "because Jesus was crucified on dogwood" said George. If you stand on the front porch of his home, you will see a line of dogwoods with dark fall-reddened leaves and bright red berries. "He's a beautiful person," said George, talking of Christ.

Like man, and the two ordinary men who built the cabinet, it is not perfect. "It is not supposed to be perfect. He didn't give me the exact measurements," like Moses or Noah might have been given for two different wood creations in the Old Testament era.

The cabinet attracts attention on its own standing in the light cast through a window of his small shop. Yet, open the doors and the real message of the cabinet is evident, as George showed.

Several days before the Feast of the Tabernacles, the cabinet was complete. "I had an urging to complete it-you are to come before the Lord with an offering. I took it to church." And that's where I first saw it and the intricate, inspired engravings inside. These were done in the colder months mostly on Johnny's kitchen table where the large cabinet back panel was placed. Above each shelf is a Biblical scene. The upper inside doors are also engraved, on the left are the Ten Commandments, on the right John 3:16 and Matthew 28:18. Johnny does some amazing carving using a wood burning tool, and though he is younger than George has poor eyesight. He uses a large sheet magnifier to read his Bible.

The very top shelf back panel engraving shows the heavens and Earth at creation; then, below on the next shelf, Moses parting the Red Sea. It was difficult to depict the water and waves, said George. The third shelf panel shows the burning bush, at left, and the Ten Commandments drawn against a stony mountain. The next shelf features the Ark of the Covenant and its contents, which are Moses' staff, the Ten Commandments, and Manna from Heaven.

Other scenes on descending shelf back's are the Star of Bethlehem, Suffering of Jesus, the sealed tomb, and the opened empty tomb at resurrection. And finally, stoop and peer at the panel above the bottom and seventh shelf where George has presented images of the Holy Bible and Revelation.

The cabinet continues to reveal things about its craftsmanship that George was unaware of when it was being built. For example, he noticed as we talked that the cedar planks on the inside of the cabinet sides matched perfectly with the blood red cedar boards at the center of the shelves, built from three pieces of wood glued together to make one shelf. "I don't know what it all means. It will be revealed to me, to us," he said. He plans to have it available at churches for viewing; just contact pastor Askew.

In plain talk, ordinary people, are moved to do extraordinary things with the right motivation and spirit.