Our Relationship with the Creation

1. It is a misunderstanding to think we belong to ourselves, even though we proclaim ourselves to be the lords of creation with dominion over all things in the visible world. Our body is not our own. Our mind is not our own either.

If we were asked on what grounds we claim these as ours, we would not be able to answer. If the question of our ownership were resolved, it would mark a historical starting point for the resolution of all problems.

However, today people live on earth without even thinking about this matter. Seeing that people today have become so disconnected from their origin, God's sorrow now is greater than the sorrow He felt at the loss of the whole universe through the Fall.

If there was anyone who felt this sorrowful heart of Heavenly Father and shared His heart, the providence centered on religion could begin from that person. The way to rediscover God is to pioneer from that point of connection to His Heart.

All beings have the earth as their parent, the universe as their parent, and the Creator as their parent. Therefore, you are not just one individual existing on your own. (004-095, 1958.03.16)

The earth is our second mother

2. It is the earth that nurtures our body. The earth is our parent, providing all the essential elements that the body needs. However, no one on earth recognizes this. In addition to the earth, we also have parents who gave us birth, the parents of our mind and body.

However, humankind doesn't have only two kinds of parents. Beyond these, we have our absolute, eternal Parent, from whom we derive our innermost value. But if we are unable to recognize and understand that we have an eternal Parent, humanity will remain in a lamentable state.

Therefore, if we do not have one moment, one period of time during history in which we can understand the eternal, absolute Parent, we will not be able to take our place in the garden of rest. We need to understand that we have an eternal Parent with a deep heart.

This is not our earthly parents, who will fade back into the earth, but the Parent who can shake up and guide earth's history and the history of all humankind. This is our Parent in heaven, in other words, the One who created us. Thus, we have three great parents. (009-016, 1960.04.03)

3. We think it is only our parents who gave birth to us, but that is not the case. The origin of the body is the earth. We are born of our parents, but we resemble not only them.

Therefore, we seek something beyond our parents, something new and greater. It is a fundamental principle that reason and motive are behind a divine outcome; therefore our longing for absolute values must derive from such a parent. A true person should be able to communicate in heart with the earth.

If the earth, as our parent, gave birth to us, then we should become people of heart who live on the earth for its sake. Furthermore, a true person knows Heaven and is concerned with our Heavenly Parent's Will.

Such a person will work hard today and tomorrow to reach the destination of goodness. A true person endeavors to understand absolute relationships.
(009-017, 1960.04.03)

4. The body is made entirely of elements borrowed from the universe. Therefore, if all things in the universe demanded to recover what was theirs from the human body, everything would be taken away from us.

From this, we can deduce, “I am made from the universe; the universe gave birth to me.” Thus, the universe is the parent of your body. What follows is, “I am the substantial form, the encapsulation of all the elements of the universe.” Then we can all say, “I am the universe in motion” or “I am the universe in action.” Given that we are the living manifestations of the universe, we must love the universe. (105-106, 1979.09.30)

5. When we sit in nature and gaze upon our surroundings, we feel something mystical. If your heart flows with love for nature, loving people will come naturally.

Gazing at flowers, butterflies and all created things in nature gives us hope. You should think, “I am begotten from nature. You, too, are begotten from nature. Therefore, the whole universe exists for you and me.” How wonderful it would be if you could feel this! (105-107, 1979.09.30)

6. The earth is the field in which we can sow and harvest the seeds of love. We grow by absorbing life elements from the earth. A mother's body is like that field. Just as we absorb life elements from the earth, a baby is born after growing in its mother's body and absorbing nutrition from her flesh and blood.

On earth, the child grows, becomes a perfected individual through life in a family, and is harvested when he or she passes into the spirit world. The spirit world is like a storehouse for things harvested in autumn, while the earth is like a field from which the harvest comes.

To become a good fruit, you must fully mature in the field. Only when you have experienced the realm of ideal love through loving relationships of all kinds up and down, right and left, and front and back can you go into the storehouse of God's kingdom.

There, immersed in God's love, you live with God eternally as His ideal object partner of love. This great universe, the cosmos, is our home. The great universe is our home, and being able to govern it as we wish, living eternally with God in His love, is the greatest happiness, the greatest liberation, and the greatest freedom. (332-225, 2000.09.23)

7. The human body is about three-fourths water. The earth sustains its children with invisible air and visible water. This is why we say the earth is our second mother. Because the earth provides all the elements for our life, we must love the earth more than we love our mother.

After growing up this way, we fly into the spirit world. First, we pass through our mother's womb, then through the world of air. At last, we enter the spirit world and are liberated there. This is our final destination. This is the kingdom of heaven centered on God. (428-209, 2003.12.19)

Human beings are the center of creation

8. God created the beautiful and intricate natural world of creation to provide a safe environment for Adam and Eve and to serve as a foundation for their external biological development. Within this safe environment, human beings were to grow and develop.

God's deepest interest, however, is that human beings develop their inner nature and loving character. Human beings are meant to resemble God's true love and become fully spiritually mature through experiencing true love. Therefore, God created the power of love as the strongest among all inner, intangible forms of energy. (279-206, 1996.08.20)

9. The Korean expression, “In all creation, human beings are the most precious,” is indeed correct. Like us, God also needs an object partner of His love. That is why He created human beings. Because of His ideal of love, which places human beings at the center, God created all things in the universe to resemble us so that they could harmonize and be absorbed by us.

When we look at the created world, we can see that everything exists in pairs. The mineral, plant, animal, and human worlds all exist in pairs. In the mineral world, positive and negative ions interact. Among the elements, none combine randomly.

If the reciprocal conditions do not match, even if God Himself commands it, they will not unite.

Conversely, if the reciprocal conditions are right, even God cannot stop them from coming together. On a minute level, even in the mineral kingdom, everything is designed to correspond to God's model of ideal love, combining and functioning within this model. (201-146, 1990.03.30)

10. The fundamental order of the universe is based on the principle of existing for the sake of the other. The creation's ideal, as well as the hope of human beings, is a world of true ideals, true love, and true peace.

Therefore, the principle of living for the sake of others is the starting point of God's ideal, and for all happiness and love. When looking at the universe, we can see that nothing exists for its own sake.

The animal world exists for the plant world; the mineral world and plant world exist for the animal world; and all of these together exist for human beings. Then for whom do human beings exist? We exist for God. Yet, God too exists for all things, since He made them and is the source of their growth and development. (135-234, 1985.12.11)

11. Human beings are the most advanced beings and contain within themselves all the building blocks of the mineral, plant, and animal worlds. Thus, human beings are the fruit, microcosm, and model for everything in the existing world.

Nevertheless, since humans are resultant beings, we can deduce that we came to exist because of a first causal being and that we resemble that being. This means there must be an absolute subject being who created human beings as His object partners.

If we are beings of character, then the subject being must also be a being of character. The field of philosophy defines this subject partner as the First Cause and Absolute Being. Religion refers to this absolute being as God.
(089-226, 1976.11.27)

12. All things in creation have dual purposes, an individual purpose and a higher purpose that serves the greater whole. Therefore, the universe is like one massive organic entity with dual purposes. Within the universe, an entity that has completed its purpose by uniting with a subject or object partner cannot exist in isolation or a fixed state.

Every individual entity assumes either a subject or object position about a partner and moves toward a higher direction and purpose. The universe is an entity that unites everything within itself as subject-object partners, with shared interests and a common purpose, and contains within itself an energy and universal power that serves the common purpose of the entire.

Then what is the nature of the strongest, most perfect mutual relationship that creates eternal harmony and unity between a subject partner and an object partner? It is the relationship of giving and receiving grounded in love. The motivation of love, however, does not originate from human beings.

The fundamental origin of love is the absolute, unchanging, causal subject being. In religion, this first causal being is called God. (102-057, 1978.11.25)

13. When we examine the process of God's creation, we see that first God made all things of creation as the foundation upon which to create human beings. We were God's final masterpiece.

Everything began with God. Culminating with the creation of human beings, God wanted to experience unity and equilibrium with human beings and all things of the natural world. Human beings' mission is to stand as mediators, connecting God, the spirit world, and the physical world. (501-280, 2005.07.23)

14. God made all things as a foundation upon which to create His sons and daughters. On this foundation, everything is related and connected. This is true from the animal kingdom to the mineral kingdom.

Plus and minus exist in the mineral world, just as stamen and pistil are found in the plant kingdom, and male and female in the animal kingdom.

The greatest masterpiece of all, created by amalgamating all things of creation, is human beings, with internal nature and external form. All entities appear in symbols, images, and substances so they can connect and relate with all the creation. (144-237, 1986.04.25)

15. The world functions harmoniously through various systems and relationships. In this complicated and diverse world, we need an ideology that can teach us how to become true owners.

This ideology should apply not only to human relationships but also to our relationship with all things of creation. What kind of person is a true owner?

A true owner considers the welfare of others before his or her own, practicing a life of service and devotion to others. He or she leads a life of true love. A true person is a true owner who loves, protects, and nurtures all things with true love.
(567-258, 2007.07.04)

16. Things that are woven together through love become one. This is the phenomenon of connection. A single strand of my hair and I resemble each other. When you look at a strand of your hair, it looks like nothing special. You may think it has no relationship with you, but it does.

All things of creation are like that strand of hair. Love functions in mysterious ways. All things of creation can respond to emotions, such as love. If you raise flowers in a caring environment with music, they will grow well.

The buds will not fade before they bloom; they will blossom fully. If you let chickens listen to music, they too will grow well. Everything grows well when harmonizing with its surroundings, but if there is discord, it wilts.
(185-035, 1989.01.01)

17. Why did God create the environment? He created the environment as a place for plants and all things of creation to grow so they could provide nutrition for human beings.

The fish in the ocean, the plants in the fields and mountains, and the grass and trees, all provide us with nutrition. For example, many things can be used as medicine when we are sick. There is nothing that is not useful.

The most distasteful thing could turn out to be highly medicinal. In some instances, the poison of venomous snakes is considered to be the best medicine.
(406-133, 2003.03.09)