Once there was a King with many children. Two of his sons lived on opposite sides of an abyss. On one side of the abyss was an open plain, on the other a forest. The Prince of the Plains side could not easily see what the Prince of the Forest was doing and soon began to suspect him of crimes. He sent messages to the Prince of the Forest that said "You are a criminal and unloyal to the King. If you were not, you would come out of the Forest and into the open". The Prince of the Forest, on hearing this message sent a message back to the Prince of the Plains saying "You are a liar and fool", and a great war broke out.

The King saw what was happening and assembled his Master Masons together. The King said, "My children have no common ground on which to meet. Because of this they have forgotten that they are Brothers. They hurl barbs and stones at each other and I am afraid they may perish. I want you to construct a stone bridge over the abyss so that the Brothers can meet."

"But Master", said the Masons, "the abyss is too great, and the barbs and stones hurt us as well."

"Yes, the abyss is great", replied the King, "but I am a Great Architect and I will help you find the designs that can span the chasm. Also, you have shown me by the work you have done on My temple that you are able to do the work. I ask you to endure this painful work for the sake of the love I feel for my children."

The Masons agreed, for they loved the King, and soon began their work. As always with human endeavors, there were some Masons who found the work too difficult. There were others who took sides with one of the Princes and left the work on the bridge to help the Prince of their side fight his battle. But there were many more who labored on the bridge and it soon closed the gap.

After many years of diligent work, the bridge was complete. The Princes, now seeing a bridge rushed forward to do battle. But as they neared each other, they saw in their opponents face features that reminded them of their Father. Then each said, "Surely, this man is my Brother!". The Prince of the Plains said, "You were right, I have been a liar and a fool. I lied when I said you were a criminal and I was a fool to forget that you were my Brother." The Prince of the Forest said, "You were also right. It was criminal of me to forget that you were also my Father's son and disloyal to the King to call you a fool." Then the Brothers embraced and agreed to maintain the bridge their Father had had made so that they would never again forget they were Brothers.


"Great Architect, help me to always remember that I must ever work on building bridges and not just temples."