2008-12-14. Gift in a Small Package
No Idaho #543
Topic: Gift in a Small Package
Group: N. Idaho TeaM
Teacher: Elyon, Monjoronson, Gabriel
TR: Jonathan
Opening
Elyon (Jonathan TR): I am Elyon, I greet you. You may find your world in distress, but I assure you that this is a wonderful time to be alive on this planet where you are going through transition. This makes for some disturbances, but it also paves the way for the bright future and will create new conditions from which human civilization will further ascend.
Lesson
You are in a cycle wherein you traditionally observe the birth of Jesus and celebrate the fact of his bestowal on your planet. It is a time of great joy when all do seek to spread joy and good cheer, to think of many of their fellows, to warm one another’s hearts, to share fellowship. This season too is like the transition cycle the planet is going through, for you likewise find yourself in hectic schedules. You have tasks to perform that aren’t part of your ordinary weekly activities. The stress can run high even while the joy is strong. You may even have senses of inadequacy, for the ideal of a wonderful season may not be fully realizable, and you will have to accept your celebration at some degree below perfect. You may fret over the acceptance of a gift that you give another and whether they will truly appreciate it or whether you missed the mark on what they would enjoy receiving.
When Michael came to this world he was the ruler of the universe, yet he had not attained his sovereignty. But in comparison to all other personalities resident in the local universe, he was the top dog, so to speak. Yet he entered this world as a helpless infant. He spent many years doing what you all do every day, and it would appear for many years that this life was simply like all others, no great dispensational revelation, no overwhelming display of God on earth. Simply a human being honestly and sincerely growing, discerning truth, adjusting the personality to the will of the Father in heaven. There then did emerge the revelation of light, and your world was blessed with teachings that have stood the ages and will continue to be the core of all spiritual pursuits.
In this season of yours of giving gifts, remember that Michael came as a gift in a small package. He did not approach his life here as a revolutionary; he fully accepted the way life unfolded on Urantia. He adapted to the conditions rather than overthrow those conditions. I say this because you have your ordinary life to live, and now you have your seasonal events to engage in. Acceptance is a means for alleviating stress. The gifts in small packages I ask you to look for, that exuberant wagging of the tail of a small puppy, that delightful chuckle of a small child, the glistening light of an icicle hanging from your eaves, the warm glow of a flickering candle, the beautiful aroma of hot cider. All these little events accumulate and become the larger celebrations.
It is this accumulation that sends you into your new year with a renewed enthusiasm toward living the life that Michael brought to this world and shared with you in his teachings that you have grasped — though at times perhaps in the hustle and bustle lose grip. But this cycle at your year’s end is an opportunity to recharge yourself. The Spirit of Truth upon you is the new babe of Bethlehem born in every heart. You will, as Jesus did, live your life in that ordinary way and incrementally uplift the planet just as he did, first with his family and close friends on a very personal level and then — what in your day and age of communication and transportation — reached out to a very small circle of people. But today a great religion stands in his name and many other groups devote themselves to him and to the way of his teachings.
Be content in your range of impact in your life. While some individuals have the opportunity to broadcast their thoughts around the world, the greatest impact is from hand to hand and heart to heart with your friends, with your locals, for a message is not merely words to be heard, but a life lived conveys meaning deeper than any eloquent paragraph.
So I invite you to meditate and to be oriented to acceptance and contentment, to do the little things that will bring joy and magnify love to your family and friends and strangers you pass by.
Monjoronson: This is Monjoronson, I engage with you today as well. I have great hope for this planet, not because of wishful thinking but because I observe the progress being made. So my hope rests upon the solid foundation based on the growth potential of human kind.
I turn your thoughts to the efforts of an athlete and how much work goes into training. The risks of injuries are always potential, the energy required, the time discipline, the rigorous routines to be performed, all done without the fanfare of lights in the stadium or crowds in the seats, day after day work and pain and sweat. But then comes the day of the event, and there comes with that athlete great strength, stamina, vitality, endurance, and a will to succeed and a confidence based on training.
This is what we are doing, my fellow light workers. We are training. We are getting stronger, and when the events unfold wherein you are required to function, you will find you have the strength, and the task will be a lot easier, far less strenuous, then it would have if you had not trained. You would have panicked and been concerned over your abilities. But today this training is making you capable of functioning for me in our project of taking Urantia to Light and Life. I assure you that your coaches are experts, and they will assist you in acquiring skills that you lack or find yourselves weak in performing.
One of the only errors of comparing an athlete to our work for spirit is that when an event occurs and the stadium is full and the fans cheer, the athletes are further stimulated. But in our work there won’t be that fanfare. Our contribution to the upliftment of this world will be quiet and the changes slow and certain. One day Urantia will slowly slide into Light and Life. It will not be like crossing the finish line or kicking the ball over the goal posts or tossing one through a hoop where you notice the before and the after. One day civilization will look around and say, “This is it! This is the epitome of human life. This is the children of God on earth”.
I encourage you to train hard, to be beautiful, to be studious, and to serve one another.
Gabriel: This is Gabriel. We are giving Jonathan a taste of musical chairs, and so I also enter into this meeting. I offer thoughts along the lines of flexibility.
All things in your life can change and are adjustable. Sometimes changes occur not to your liking, but you do have a center of will power, and you can make the modifications you perceive to the goal, to be the ideal, to be spirit among matter. One can say this is the way things always are, but if you are honest with yourself and look around, nothing is ever always the way it is. Things constantly change. You have creativity. This is your injection into the flux of life. This is how you contribute to the mural of mankind. It is a give and take. As things unfold about you you may react. As things appear to stagnate about you, you may infuse the energy to cause it to roll forward, to advance.
You know that flexibility implies being able to go one way and the other, to bend backward and to bend forward, to stretch out and curl up. Things in life about you, your appointments, your engagements, they are opportunities wherein you may infuse light to express love. They are opportunities also wherein you may be recharged.
When you encounter difficult times, be an investigator and search for the deeper meanings, search for the eternal truth. Resist fighting that difficult occurrence, for it may be revealing to you a new understanding.
Monjoronson spoke of an athlete. Your mild jog may bring a blister. That blister can become a callous, and with that callous you can run and not blister ever again. It looks like a difficult and painful situation at first only to become part of your strength. I am speaking of flexibility so I also would add that you could change your shoes.
Elyon introduced our meeting today on the theme of Michael’s bestowal. Jesus was very flexible. He could be told at one moment that his hour had come from angels, and he could wait for many, many years before he actually took up the task, not because he was procrastinating but because life required his services in his family.
Your country is changing its federal executive administration, and great work goes into choosing members to be associated in that executive staff. Human beings reveal their resumes. They undergo interviews. Their histories of accomplishments are scrutinized; their goals and objectives are weighed, and a staff is assembled. The many tasks that are needed to be fulfilled are filled by these various talents and people.
Jesus did likewise when he put together his apostolic corps, but he had to work within a few villages to find willing souls. He did not have the opportunity to recruit ambassadors from abroad, guild teachers from colleges. He was flexible and accepted those who first were willing because they could perceive who he was and what he stood for. Then began the teaching and the training, and these young fellows were flexible enough to adjust to the rigors of Jesus’ missions. Today they are ranked with the many famous.
I will leave you with one last image, one I’m sure you’ve pondered before, that of a river, ever seeking down hill the lower elevations. When it encounters an obstacle it adjusts. It flows back and forth downward and downward. This flexibility of the stream can carve huge canyons. You may go through your week and run into those obstacles, but if you are flexible and able to adjust your course, before long the great canyon of spiritual achievement will reveal itself in all its layers of beauty.
Thank you for receiving my words. I thank you for your attention.
Elyon: This is Elyon returning. I would offer you the opportunity to inject comment into our meeting or to put forth a question, should that be your curiosity.
Evelyn: I appreciate all the reminders that the little packages, the little things, do add up. We can rest assured that they are worthy contributions to the whole.
Elyon: Indeed, and you know of my past lessons of the brick by brick that builds the wall; the accumulation of little things makes great edifices. I am aware of the common comment among you that children at Christmas seem to enjoy the box it came in more than the toy. Those are the little things.
When you were first learning the gospel of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man; to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and your neighbor as yourself, these weren’t accomplished in one swoop. They were little efforts, even attempts with failure, but soon they grew deep into your soul. Now they are far easier to manifest.
While all things about you appear to change, you have an extra element to that change which makes change become growth, and growth is progressive, not merely altering. The very word growth implies little, incremental advancements. This is where solid, stable spiritual attainment occurs.
I will draw a close at this point. I ask you all to draw your thoughts to Michael. Honor him not only with words and praise, but honor him in the actions that you take toward your fellows. Farewell.
