What The Urantia Book Means to Me—Alejandro Aran Sanchez

By Alejandro Aran Sanchez, Mexico City, Mexico

In 2013 I came across an article that mentioned the sources used in J. J. Benitez’s books related to the life of Jesus. The Urantia Book was listed, so I looked it up and found the Foundation’s website and the online text. From that moment on, and for the next three months, each of my nights became the dessert of my days as I devoured the text until sleep overcame me.

For a time, however, I set the book aside. It was the darkest stage of my life, and it lasted more than three years. The Urantia Book just sat on my nightstand, gathering dust.

Eventually I picked it up again, having come to the realization that the revelation in and of itself has no value without the courage to make the effort to direct my life according to the precepts and teachings that were put into human language for our benefit. I also discovered that the book was the answer to my constant and sincere search for truth, beauty, and goodness. I now know, understand, and acknowledge in a mature and consistent way that our Father dwells within each of us and cares for us with intelligent love.

Today, more than 11 years after I first encountered The Urantia Book, I have come to appreciate many things about the revelation. There is still much to know, understand, and do. However, I have managed to transform my life in an incredible way that I would never have imagined before I found this book. Although I have always been a persistent and tenacious person, today I know that the most wonderful, valuable, and meaningful things that a person can find, recognize, and experience only happen because they are held in the hand of God our Father.

I now have a clear picture regarding God, the universe, and my life. Every day it becomes clearer. I feel secure in my faith, there is confidence in my steps, my self-control is greater, and my concepts of God, Jesus, religion, the universe, and service to my fellows have expanded. The way I experience life is increasingly friendly and harmonious. Communion with God is one of the moments I look forward to most during the day. I understand that The Urantia Book could have little meaning in my life were it not for the lavish mercy credits that our Father has established for each one of us, combined with my personal efforts, which he strengthens day by day, to understand and do his will.

This book has added value and meaning to my life to the extent that I strive to live by its teachings. The result—real religion—is experienced as the impulse to service. A Melchizedek of Nebadon tells us:

When a human being does find God, there is experienced within the soul of that being such an indescribable restlessness of triumph in discovery that he is impelled to seek loving service-contact with his less illuminated fellows, not to disclose that he has found God, but rather to allow the overflow of the welling-up of eternal goodness within his own soul to refresh and ennoble his fellows. 102:3.4 (1121.6)