In Safely Home by Randy Alcorn, Ben Fielding is on the fast track to becoming CEO of Getz International. To increase the company’s business with China, Ben’s boss wants him to spend a few weeks there and suggests Ben stay with his old college roommate, Li Quan, to get a feel for what the “common man” in China might need from their business.

Ben has been in China many times before, is familiar with much of the culture, even speaks fluent Mandarin, but he has never looked up his old roommate. He is uncomfortable doing so now. Quan had come to college in America an atheist and became a Christian while here: Ben was a professing Christian in college, but his business goals have usurped everything else in his life. But, being put on the spot by his boss, he has little choice but to go and see Quan.

Ben is shocked that his brilliant roommate, who as a student had been asked to stay on at Harvard as  history professor, is living in such poverty. When he begins to learn about house churches and persecution of Christians, he is disbelieving, having fallen for the public relations hype fed to American businessmen and officials. But the more time Ben spends in China with Quan, the more his eyes are opened, not only to the true situation there, but also to the needs of his own heart.

Interspersed with Ben and Quan’s story are glimpses into the heavenlies as Alcorn interprets it, the great “cloud of witnesses,” the King’s care, watchfulness, and preparation for His own.

The story was inspired by Ron DiCianni’s beautiful print Safely Home, depicting a martyr being greeted home by his Savior, an angel waiting to the side with the new arrival’s white robe, the nations of earth visible below.

Knowing a couple of people who have worked in China, I do know that true Christians have to meet “underground,” have to be very careful about their words, actions, and even e-mails, and they can lose their jobs or be arrested for their faith.

We have it so relatively easy in America, we forget the hallmark of many Christians through the ages has been suffering and martyrdom. This book is a wake-up call, and it was a rebuke to me over the “little things” that I get grumbly about or the ways I fail to stand. In myself I know I don’t have it in me to face what some Christians do. But they would say they don’t either: their Savior helps them, as He will us as we walk for Him. We just need to remember that, in a world that hates Him, we often need to make a choice whether we’ll play it safe here, or do what we ought to and take the consequences; temporary safety and ease here, or being joyously welcomed Safely Home there.

A couple of my favorite lines from the book:

From the King: “They don’t understand that I am not only at work here, preparing a place for them, but I am at work there, preparing them for that place” (p. 313).

“The hands and feet of the only innocent man became forever scarred so that guilty people would not have to bear the scars they deserved” (p. 375).

My only little teensy criticism was that the story seemed a little more message-driven rather than story-driven. All writers are conveying a message, of course, and craft stories around the truths they wanted to convey or portray. It’s just a little more obvious here. But that may just be my impression — the reviews I looked through didn’t mention that, so it’s obviously not a drawback.

I do not only recommend but encourage the reading of this book.