CELESTIAL NIGHTS RETREAT

Cape San Blas, Florida

Late night, February 20, 1999

Teachers: Merium, Aaron and Will

Bed Time Stories

T/R/'s: Gerdean and Bob Devine

MERIUM:      I heard someone ask for a bedtime story. I am Merium. I am your big

sister, and I am the storyteller.

RACHEL & GROUP: Hi, Merium.

MERIUM:      All my lovely children, how you delight us. I have been sitting here with my peers, other teachers, enjoying your party. We have been observing your mortal behavior.

GROUP:         (Uproarious laughter) Please bring us to a higher level!

RACHEL:      Sorry, Merium.

MERIUM:      That is quite alright. We are long accustomed to you children.

GROUP:         (Uproarious laughter)

MERIUM:      Many times we wait not just moments, not just hours, but lifetimes. And so we are bemused by your delight in one another and it is indeed a delight to us to acknowledge your revelry in good faith and in good will of your fellowship through Christ Michael. It is altogether seemly that you should frolic as joyous children. I had observed some of my elders here observing how hedonistic your behaviors can be …

GROUP:         (Loud chuckles)

MERIUM:      … and someone brought up the subject of the golden calf, but …

GROUP:         (Loud dismayed laughter) None of us!

MERIUM:      … I reminded them that these delightful children are Father's children and I am accustomed to playing on the floor with my children, as I have said many times, and so they have sent me out to greet you, for I understand you. I am a child myself. I am perhaps a little older, but truly not much wiser. But at any rate, your shenanigans have been very much like healthy children scampering after a big family picnic, excited on spirits of one sort or another …

GROUP:         (Laughter) Whoops!

MERIUM:      … and reluctant to settle down to hear your bedtime story and to say your prayers, but we have come now at your invitation to address you and to help you get tucked in so that you will be able to sleep peacefully, knowing that on the morrow your Son will rise again and you will bask again in the gaity and the peace that is yours because we are loved by our Eternal Parents.

You are delightful children. I am glad to be your friend. I will move aside and allow another, perhaps elder teacher, to address you.

GROUP:         Thank you, Merium. Good night.

AARON:        Greetings, friends. I am Aaron. It is my pleasure to be present among your pleasantries this evening. You have been moving to the harmonies this evening and in this light I would like to direct your thoughts to a different sort of harmony, that harmony which is the interaction of two personalities with each other. Each interaction you face is an opportunity to play the instruments you have been given and we have been pleased to recognize that you are willing to face each other with high intent, even amidst your human activities.

The lifting of your will into alignment with God's will is the tuning of your instrument so that you may someday play in an orchestra that tours the universe. Recognize that your opportunities are endless, that no one moment can identify your eternity, and that your moments of purely human pleasure, while being rudimentary to the eyes of spirit beings, bring you into a grounding place such that you recognize your roots, only do we like to point out that you are capable of rising from the material to the spiritual progressively, so please do not see our wording as being disciplinary so much as to point out our own efforts at understanding human behavior.


You are here for a purpose, to fellowship with God's family and to enjoy one another and you have been doing this admirably. Simply keep in mind that the transition forward can be aided by your moments of reversion. Your energy is wonderfully vibrant this evening. That is all.

GROUP:         Good night, Aaron. Thank you.

LUGENIA:     Were we going to have a bedtime story? Tell us a story. Merium is the storyteller.

MERIUM:      How demanding you are, child!

GROUP:         (Laughter)

MERIUM:      Have you not heard that we tell the same story again and again?

GROUP:         (Mocking laughter)

MERIUM:      The fascination of the bedtime story is not the story but the ritual of telling the story. I will tell you this story, Princess, and that is that you have shown us in your behaviors this evening, in coming together around this hearth, this fire, that you know how to lift up Urantia. By your group purpose this evening, you have mastered yourselves sufficiently, you have given in to your spirit hunger, you have brought yourselves encouragement by your music, by your psalms. You have joined hands and done a ring-around-the- rosy that has enabled you to be still sufficiently to hear again the greatest story ever told. You are our children and you are greatly loved.

Now, as you go off into dreamland, as you think about your hopes for tomorrow, as you think about your regrets of yesterday, think about these things in a magnified fashion and think about the hopes of the universe for you and for your fellows. Think about the hopes of your fellows. Do they have the same horizon that you have? Do they know the same joys? Do they have the assurance of sonship? Are they privy to the same bedtime story that you savor, that you discard as having heard before?

This story has saving grace, and you have in you the ability to bring this story to other children who cry themselves to sleep at night for they feel they are alone. How out heart wrings for these babies who sit on the doorstep of humanity not even knowing to knock, not even knowing they can come in if they but knock.

The Master has called you to go out and find his lost sheep. Find his babies, and welcome them into your hearth, your home, the home that Michael has provided and that we are provided and that we are happy to play in and to serve in, that we belong to as his children.

Once upon a time there was a little girl who longed for a blue dress.

SOMEONE:   (Something about) a red dress.

MERIUM:      That is all.

WILL:            Yes, I am Will, your friend and teacher. I have few words tonight, but did want to extend my greetings to you. Thank you for your journey to this place of union. Keep singly in your mind this evening before you go and lose consciousness, if you would, the union of spirit with soul. Your embrace with one another is reflective of degrees of spirit development that has been aided by your eye upon the Father, your internal Guide, your truest Companion. If you would spend a few moments in stillness this evening, remembering the ultimate Source of your unity, I would be grateful, as this is our purpose in coming to you, and thus my evening's mission is fulfilled. Welcome to Florida.

GROUP:         Thank you, Will. Good night.