Books to Uplift the Spirit

How I Found The Urantia Book.

Thirty years ago I was living in a college dorm. It was a Saturday morning, and since the cafeteria was closed, I accepted my brother’s invitation to come to his house for a breakfast of apple pancakes.

A big blue book belonging to his girlfriend, Patty, was on the coffee table. Patty— artist and truth seeker, painter of grand alien landscapes and mosaics of organic wonderlands— told me to take the book home.

For months I jumped about the blue book. I found it helped me piece together myths and ancient history. I was now prepared to handle any test my Comparative Religions professor could dream up. How I wished I could have used it as a source note in my papers!

I was captivated by the sweeping story of man’s attempts to build a civilization: the heavenly rebellion of 200,000 years ago, in which powerful angels, deluded by the ego sick teachings of Lucifer, were pitted against lowly humans as they desperately clung to their belief in one God; Adam and Eve’s disillusionment 35,000 years ago, when faced with primitive warring tribes; the steady hand of the Melchizedek, in his 2000 BC attempt to bring earth back to the fold; the succession of prophets pushing the envelope out further to evolve the concept of God from wrathful to forgiving to loving and eternal.

I was equally mystified by the picture it conveyed of millions of galaxies, and the countless children of God who lived on the whirling planets of the evolving universes of space.

I remember the day it dawned on me that this book was truth. Patty was painting and I was reading “The Resurrection of Lazarus” to her. The windows were open to a cool, bright afternoon, and the smell of honey and red zinger tea filled the room. Suddenly, in mid-sentence, I felt a warmth sweep over me. This is what really happened two thousand years ago, I told myself.

Soon afterward, the blue book transformed from a historical documentary to a spiritual touchstone. I had discovered that we each have a piece of God within us. But along with my sudden liberation from years of Catholic guilt, came a realization that it was my responsibility alone to discern the Father’s will.