The One Pearl of Great Price
The Philippines is where I was born and Paradise is where I am bound – that is, if I remember to do God’s will. I have all the time and opportunity to say No to life eternal, but how can I possibly reject this potential future after catching a glimpse of it, the grandeur and adventure of it all, in The Urantia Book? Just say Yes. I want to see the great, infinite face of eternity.
A few years before moving to the United States, the curiosity bug caught me. Next to movie theaters, bookstores were my favorite hangouts in Manila. I was especially drawn to the Alternative Religions, Philosophy, and Psychology sections. I skipped classes and spent countless hours keeping a low profile at the library of the University of the Philippines.
Years later, in the ’70s, in a bookstore in Yakima, Washington, a big blue book with a strange title caught my eye. I flipped it open: Melchizedek . . . Superuniverses . . . Supernaphim. … I checked the Foreword. Nothing doing. I replaced the book on the shelf – too heavy a fare. I needed something else in the shopping mall and the parking meter was running out.
Months passed. In between art classes one afternoon, at the Central Washington University library, my wandering feet led me to … that book again. What the heck is it all about? Paradise? Sure. Adam and Eve? Hmmm. What and who else are in here? The first human beings? What? I rifled through the table of contents and moved to various chapters. I read and read, on and on. That must have been a sight to the angel watching me, my gobbling up pages right and left! I was hooked.
The next day I drove down to Yakima and invested $20 on Big Blue. Quite a return on this, the best investment I have ever made. The Urantia teachings have changed my outlook on life. This is an understatement. I cannot imagine what I might have turned into had I not come across it. It is the one pearl of great price.
