pEd Lantzer, a once-homeless misfit, brain damaged by scarlet fever as a child, suddenly has a vision from God of an enormous task he must complete. It involves the art of marquetry, a skill he learned from his father, where he cuts small diamond shapes out of various types of wood and glues them to a 4-foot by 8-foot plywood board to create a picture. At first, Ed is overwhelmed and tells God that it's impossible, but God persists, so Ed agrees. Unable to write or sketch, Ed visualizes the picture in his head. For months, in a little 8-foot by 10-foot room, he cuts out thousands of diamond shapes using 30-degree and 60-degree angles. He begins to glue the diamonds to the large plywood board, fitting each piece together like a puzzle. The natural color variations of the wood add depth and dimension to the picture, and suddenly what emerges is an image of Jesus sitting at a table. But Ed's picture isn't finished. He moves the large board out and begins gluing diamonds onto another board