Learning from the Creation

1. Whenever I look at nature, I think deeply about how God created all these things. I have such a sense of awe and wonder when I think about how all the trees and plants were created.

We should have a sincere concern for and interest in everything around us. Only after we grasp the details of things can we manage them well. But even through simply appreciating the original value of nature, we will receive a great blessing.

Then we will comprehend the fact that nature was made for us. However, people don't know how to look at nature. Nature is truly a mystery.

When we come to know nature, we can hear wonderful music even the sound of the wind. This also helps us greatly in our life of faith. Nature is the closest thing to our bodies. (014-101, 1964.06.20)

Nature is the first scripture

2. Since human beings were fashioned to be the lords of creation, we need to stand as models in front of all things of creation. From the position of children attending our Heavenly Father, if we find life's lessons in all things of creation and harmonize with them, we will be naturally attuned to the principles of heaven and earth.

Animals cooperate to protect their kind. When a lion approaches a herd of zebras, they form a circle around their young and protect them by kicking with their hind legs.

Lions too, even though they may fight over their prey, still share it. Thus, we learn from nature how to harmonize with one another and how to live together. That's the way of our life. (350-264, 2001.08.18)

3. I have a love for literature. I truly enjoy reciting poetry. Nature provides a setting in which everyone can feel inspired to recite poetry. People should be proud of their environment before they are proud of themselves.

They should say, “The mountains are good, the water is good, the fields are good and my house in these surroundings is good. Therefore, I feel good.” God created the environment first, and only after that did He create Adam. Everywhere in this environment are subject partners and object partners.

There is nothing in nature that does not exist in pairs. Those who can feel, amid nature, that they are model representations of the universe and owners of it, are happy people. I found the Principle in nature. (394-236, 2002.10.12)

4. When I step outside in the morning, I listen to the twittering of the birds. The sounds may seem much the same, but I wonder, “Why is that one chirping like this?” If a bird is chirping alone, I can discern undoubtedly that it is singing to call its partner.

Often I will hear a bird call from here, and then one responding from over there. They tweet back and forth and then come together and meet. I am so sure when a bird is chirping alone that this will happen. It's always like this.

That's why I truly love nature. I am saying you should take an interest in nature. In the course of seeking the Principle, I took a great interest in everything. I would have a question, and then pay attention to a myriad of things, and from among them, the answer would emerge. When that answer aligns with the east, west, south, and north, I know it is correct. This is the Principle.
(069-171, 1973.10.31)

5. When I go to a beautiful, scenic spot, I look at that place and evaluate it from the viewpoint of heavenly fortune. I try to connect that place to heavenly fortune. That is why, in the early days of our church, I visited many mountains.

When I see a country's mountains, earth, and water, I can intuit the character of its people, You can drink the water anywhere in Korea; it is so clean and pure. We must restore nature first. Before we go out overseas, we must deeply love our country's natural environment.

The one who knows how to love the land where he was born knows how to love his body. The one who knows how to love his body knows how to love his mind. The one who loves his mind is the one who also loves God. (014-102, 1964.06.20)

6. You should go into the deep and mysterious world of God's heart through the spiritual path, thereby becoming able to appeal to nature in tears. You should say to nature, “Before my circumstances, there are your circumstances.

I know you are in this pitiable situation because of me, and for this, I am sorry. Please wait a little longer.” You need to become a person with this attitude and heart. We travel the path of the spiritual seeker to learn this attitude and heart.

In the past, people of prayer described nature as the “first scripture.” They affirmed that we should study nature, which was created by God before we read the Bible. (020-271, 1968.07.07)

Nature is our textbook

7. All the nature was the model to teach Adam and Eve how to practice ideal love. It was a textbook of love and a natural museum of love – a museum to teach love.

Thus, nature serves to carry people toward their completion and perfection. Nature exists to perfect love.

The mineral world pleads with us, “Please complete your love;” the plant world begs us, “Please make your love perfect.” The animal world says the same thing. They all want to see people completely ripen and mature their love – that is to say, they would like to see God's love perfected.

When that time comes, a world filled with abundant love, a world that can become one, will come about. That is why they would like to see the perfection of love. When God's love, human love, and the universe's love are all perfect, everyone will be able to say for the first time, “Oh, we are happy!”(131-126, 1984.04.16)

8. God manifested the world and all things of creation as a model all people could follow. Human beings were meant to become the lords of creation. Isn't the fact that we were unable to become such lords shameful?

When we hear male and female birds calling out to find their young, we cannot help but feel how contradictory our human lives are. I am telling you to go out in the morning and look at where the birds are flying.

The male flies to where the female is, the female flies to where the male is, and both of them fly to where the fledglings are. If you go to South America, you will see thousands of parrots flying around, joining in one place and singing. It is the same with geese. Other kinds of birds, such as magpies, also gather to feed in the morning. (608-068, 2009.02.19)

9. Initially, Adam and Eve, born as God's children, were meant to gradually grow in the realm of God's protection. As their intellect developed, they would have come to realize why God created all things, and God would have educated them through the created world.

The created world, where everything is in motion, provided resources for the education of Adam and Eve, who were our original ancestors, and it was a textbook teaching them how to live.

The world was a model and a museum showing them how to lead an ideal life. By observing all things around them as they grew, they would naturally have learned how to relate to each other in love.

Whether they looked at the insect world or the world of higher animals, they were meant to discover that these living things are made in interacting pairs, to do things for each other, call to each other, and love each other.

Even though Adam and Eve were immature, by looking around them, they would have learned the principles of the world as their intellectual capacity developed. As they grew toward maturity, they would have come to sense the reality of love. On coming to know love, they would have mastered everything. (137-127, 1986.01.01)

10. Children's favorite toys are usually things that move. They intuitively like lively creatures such as puppies and insects. Children like moving, dynamic things, such as flying creatures and wild animals. This is how people are.

Their interest is aroused when they see the natural world and the earth in motion.

Of course, their level of interest in different things varies, but people find it interesting to contemplate these things. In this way, they learn about the attributes of love in themselves.

Observing how insects and other animals live, we see that they all exist in pairs.

Considering this, we can see nature as a museum and a textbook to educate human beings, the object partners of God's love, about the ideal of reciprocal relationships. (137-211, 1986.01.03)

11. People were created as subject and object partners; they were created to have mutual relationships. The world too, full of all things that were created for the sake of humankind, exists in harmony under the principle of love; it fulfills its purpose of life and God's ideal when it receives people's love.

For people as they grow, especially for the maturing Adam and Eve, the created world of all things was made as a textbook of love and as a museum that endlessly displays the essence of love.

Adam and Eve, representing God's masculine subjectivity and feminine receptivity, would have learned how to love through nature, the textbook of love, grown to their full perfection, and united with each other horizontally.

The horizontal unity of Adam and Eve would have represented the completion of the ideal of the object partner, and this was God's universal hope of creation.
(135-012, 1985.08.20)

12. From the perspective of the standard of true love, Adam and Eve were meant to grow up observing and learning from nature's garden of love, created according to the pair system. They were to have become aware of what they were to do as they grew up, through all the natural things and events around them.

The creation existed as the museum of love for the education of Adam and Eve. As they grew, they would have watched the birds and butterflies, noticing that all these creatures exist as male and female pairs. Eventually, they would have come to understand how these creatures developed affection for each other and brought forth their young.

When they reached full maturity, Adam and Eve were supposed to realize for themselves that man is the prince of God's love, representing plus, and woman is the princess of God's love, representing minus.

Then the woman would have come to believe, “That man is the very man I need!” and the man would have thought, “She is the woman I need!”
(201-162, 1990.03.30)

13. In spring, the trees blossom and butterflies and bees dance in and around them. They do this by the principle of love. When new buds open on the trees and the branches start to grow, they quicken to whisper in love. The trees grow and, when the time comes, they bear fruit.

Relationships expressing the principle of love are evident in the plant world. All this is educational material for us. When you look at nature you can see that what I have said is well-founded Even God moves based on the relationship of love between the subject partner and object partner.

Accordingly, whatever plant you consider, acts based on the principle of true love. The mineral World is the same. Therefore, we have veins of gold and silver in the earth and veins of blood in the human body. The mineral world serves a purpose higher than its own. (133-071, 1984.07.08)

14. All things of creation love each other. In the worlds of animals, plants, and minerals, such loving interactions are evident. For their partners they dance, they sing, they fly and they crawl. When you look at all this and ask, “What are they doing?” you can begin to learn from them. What is nature?

It is the museum that was to educate Adam. It was a living textbook to educate Adam. Wherever Adam went, Eve was to follow; wherever Eve went, Adam was to follow. Adam's sphere of activity was broad because he was a man, externally active.

Looking at nature he would exclaim, “Look at that! What are they doing?” He would pay careful attention to discover how animals got together, how their bellies grew bigger, and how they gave birth to their young. He would have learned from this. (134-194, 1985.07.20)

15. When Eve became a teenager, her breasts began to grow. She would also have noticed how animals feed their young. As boys and girls grow, the strength of their attraction toward each other surges. For no apparent reason, teenage boys and girls feel marvelously attracted to each other.

Likewise, we can imagine that Adam and Eve would have felt a strong attraction toward each other. They would have seen how male and female animals meet and kiss. They would have learned everything from them.

Nature was supposed to educate them. The whole world of creation was to be the educational resource to stimulate Adam and Eve. (134-195, 1985.07.20)

16. God created out of love. From the beginning to the end, He invested everything.

Therefore He said, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end." (Rev. 22:13)

Such total investment is possible only due to love because love contains everything. God created the universe for love, and He lives for love. He created because He needed an object partner for His love. He created human beings as the model and then placed them in the east, west, north, and south.

Thus, the entire creation, everything in the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms, was created in pairs. Everything in the world, based on the pair system, constitutes a textbook to enable people to learn the process of seeking ideal love. Even male and female insects make love. Everything in nature is educational material.
(173-211, 1988.02.18)

17. Everything in nature is scientific. The whole universe is a museum of science. Even the four legs of a table are learned from nature. Human beings by themselves cannot create anything. The universe is the treasure chest of all knowledge. The universe is nature's university.

The natural environment in which fish and animals live is no different from that of human beings. They all breathe, they all see. Even small insects have eyes. If they didn't have eyes, how could they find their partners? They all have sensory organs, they exist in pairs and they multiply. (247-152, 1993.05.02)