Nature has much to teach us. From ants industriously storing food to birds sweetly calling for their mates, observing the ways of nature’s creatures provides lessons about the basic morality of life.
Cultivating the earth and caring for animals teaches about patience, sacrifice, and God’s dependable grace when the harvest yields its abundance.
Father Moon teaches that through plants and animals, God provided even the earliest humans with sufficient instruction to live a life of love and value.
But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? Job 12.7-9
After the sacred volumes of God and the Scriptures, study, in the second place, that great volume of the works and the creatures of God. Francis Bacon5
Have you considered the soil you till? Do you yourselves sow it, or are We the Sowers? Did We will, We would make it broken orts, and you will remain bitterly jesting— “We are debt-loaded; nay, we have been robbed.”
Have you considered the water you drink? Did you send it down from the clouds, or did We send it? Did We will, We would make it bitter; so why are you not thankful? Have you considered the fire you kindle? Did you make its timber to grow, or did We make it? We ourselves made it for a reminder, and a boon to the desert-dwellers. Qur’an 56.63-73
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12.24
Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his going forth is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.
Hosea 6.3
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Human beings experience interest and curiosity when observing nature. From its creatures we learn about the nature of love. Observing the insects and animals, we see that they all live in pairs.
In this respect, nature is a museum where God prepared exhibits to teach human beings, God’s object partners of love, about the ideal of relationships. (137:212, January 3, 1986)
All creatures love one another. Animals, insects, plants and minerals all love one another. They sing, dance, fly and crawl for their mates. Watch them and learn what they do.
Adam and Eve were educated in the Museum of nature, a living textbook… Adam and Eve watched male and female animals kissing each other; they saw and learned. Nature is a natural source of our education. (134:194, July 20, 1985)
We can learn by watching the birds loving each other, building their nests to lay their eggs, and feed- ing their young. We have to do more than birds for the sake of our own children, even hundreds of times more.
Male and female insects mate with each other and bear their young. Some even risk their lives to raise them. This is how they teach us. (229:287, April 13, 1992)
The salmon has a truly amazing lesson for human beings. It loves once and dies. It becomes food to nourish its offspring. What a wonderful example of a creature that gives up its life for the sake of love! (132:81, May 20, 1984)
I discovered 80 percent of the Divine Principle from nature. (374:235, April 10, 2002)
Trees and grass are the best of all nature’s teaching materials. The seeds that are sown in spring grow, blossom and bear fruit, thus paying back the farmer for his labor.
Then, they die away, yet the next year, they propagate more branches and bear more fruits for the harvest. Thus, they teach us the way to grow and prosper. (386:298, July 18, 2002)
In my village, I used to watch flocks of migratory birds come and go with the seasons. People who live in a big city like Seoul may not be familiar with them. Not experiencing the ebb and flow of nature, they lack in the area of emotion.
Without the opportunity to experience the mystery and beauty of nature, their heart does not fully develop. When the season turned and beautiful birds flew around, I would spy on them, observing how they laid their eggs and hatched their chicks. It was not unusual for me to spend a week observing a nest. (137:223-24, January 3, 1986)
Do birds recognize national borders? Do they need a visa when they migrate? Would a hurricane stop in the Gulf of Mexico because it didn't have a visa to enter the United States? Is the weather constrained by American law?
It is amazing when you think of it—ants and lizards can cross the Mexican border as often as they please, but human beings cannot cross the border without a visa! Must American ants and Mexican ants get government authorization to mate?
Animals do not care about national sovereignties, but people’s lives are complicated with such things. (106:138, December 23, 1979)