© 2005 Merlyn Cox
© 2005 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
Looking out of my study window during the month of March, I grew weary of seeing the same universal brown that characterizes late winter. I always try to console myself at this time of year with a countdown to spring, but this year, right up to and past the designated day, the cold wind was unrelenting, and the long range forecasts simply didn’t budge-below normal temperatures kept coming like a mantra, with no break in sight.
Perhaps, I thought, nature has forgotten its job; this will be the year the whole landscape will remain fallow for another year.
Of course, in due time, and in disregard for either my desires or discouragement, it came again. The green, though tardy, is quickly pushing up through last year’s blanket of leaves, leaf buds are swelling on the trees, and nature is responding to the irresistable summons to be fruitful and multiply.
At times, I couldn’t help but compare the long winter and the seemingly distant hope for spring, to that of the Urantia community. Agreat revelation, the great good news of heaven itself, the bend of the universe and its eternal goal, has entered human life-again — and we wonder how long it will take for its children to embrace the liberating message.
I speculate again and again, but I don’t know the answer. I occasionally dare to think it surely must be just around the corner; but on the whole, I suspect it will be measured in generations, and not just in years.
What sustains me is the knowledge that it will come, just as surely as springtime follows winter, and the seasons of the slow evolution of human society run their course. It simply can’t be hurried or forced.
More importantly, for the individual, the joy of the message is ours now, for both the promise and satisfaction of an eternal future can be experienced daily in our lives, even as we rejoice in the modest signs of springtime.
In this issue:
This issue is heavily weighted with articles concerning science and The Urantia Book. This is clearly an ongoing concern in the Urantia community, and there are significantly differing opinions, even among committed readers.
Correction: