© 2001 Jean-Claude Romeuf
© 2001 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
(Refer to the previous Link)
Some have asked Flora how she interpreted the text of the Treasure. She will try to answer this question, despite a certain reluctance. Indeed, initially this text was intended to fulfill the function of a parable. However, as everyone knows, the approach to a parable is not done through a total analytical understanding. An analysis that is too severe leads to different interpretations which, instead of uniting readers or listeners, lead them on the contrary to verbal quarrels where each defends his point of view. The result is then the opposite of the hoped-for goal which was the search for a mental and spiritual union.
“I simply wish,” explained Flora, “that the little Tom Thumb that you all are would receive the message as it was told. The truth is often better perceived by the innocent heart of a child than by the rigorous thought of an adult.”
“The forest is simply the world in which we must struggle. Wisdom is obtained through life experience. Tales are the books we have read, the voices we have heard, the different paths we have followed.”
“Many people have passed by the treasure without opening it; others have had it in their possession but its contents have not interested them.”
“The animals in fabulous tales are the people who are blindly satisfied with established dogmas, social customs, scientific prescriptions. They are these intellectual parrots who flee before any novelty. They are these frogs who are afraid to leave their pond. My treasure makes them flee because it is new.”
“I think it is not useful to define the treasure. We know in the text that it is a book, because the madman tries to read it over my shoulder.”
“The scientist thinks he knows everything. It’s true that he knows a lot of things but he’s not interested in the essential, that is to say, God. He’s not interested in me either, little Flora, and shrugs his shoulders as he turns away from me. I think he’s a little too proud and no longer hears the beating of his child’s heart. Fortunately, not all scientists are like him. Spiritually, we can say that this scientist is stupid.”
“The madman, on the other hand, is not a spiritual moron. Of course, he is a little mentally retarded, a little crazy as they say in the south, but it is much less serious. His IQ does not allow him to be taught correctly, but that does not prevent him from knowing and perhaps hearing the voice of God deep within him. On a human level, we are all more or less crazy. It is just a question of degrees.”
“Waiting for our time to come means waiting for awakening. This can happen here below or after our death. May the idiots forgive me and be reassured: imbecility does not prevent resurrection! God has a lot of tenderness for the underprivileged. On the mansion worlds, let us not forget that we will have a new mind that is certainly much more efficient.”
“You have to have the curiosity, the confidence and the hope of a little child to enter the kingdom of God. This is why Little Thumb and I want to remain eternal children. We both want to grow: that is to say, we want to grow in love. That is what it means to want to do the will of God!.”
“Despite the time that has passed, while my heart has filled with love and my soul has grown, I have realized that I am still the same little girl. This means that despite the change, my personality has not changed: I am still little Flora. For the God who lives in me and who gave me personality, I am unique and different from all the other little girls in the cosmos. If I dared, I would say that I am the only daughter of God. Too bad, I dare!”
“Tom Thumb was lost in the forest because he had listened too much to the voice of the masters, he had done too much bodybuilding, that is to say he had read too many works dealing with theories or cults in ”ism“. His soul was not in harmony with his mind. He hoped for something new, but did not find it. He was not looking for revolution, but progress. That is why he was crying.”
“I shared my treasure with him. I believe he will keep it for a long time.”
Phew, I’m done! See you soon, maybe in another story.
Jean-Claude Romeuf