God, the origin of true love 20 In terms of love, God is the origin of all the related emotions. It is from here that parents’ love, husband-wife love, children’s love, brotherly love, the love of relatives and the love of a people emerge. Just as the branches, twigs and leaves spread out from a tree trunk, and as ripples flow out from waves, the shoots of love grow out; the farther they go, the more sensitive you become. If you become a person who receives God’s love, the one among your relatives whose heart is closest to God will be attracted to you. If God is with you, people are attracted to you, although they don’t know why. (050-267, 1971.11.08)
21 We should become sons and daughters who are concerned about the heart of our Father and attend Him. Otherwise we will become objects of pity. Once we know that God exists, that He seeks us and works for us, we must understand that it is not enough to attend this God as merely a mental image. God is the substantial being who wants to be with us eternally as one body, eating together, living together, sharing joy and suffering together for eternity. God is the eternally unchanging original being of love, the embodiment of eternal hope. Jesus Christ was the person who made no excuses in front of this God. Completely forgetting himself, he was able to do anything for the sake of God’s Will. We must be sons and daughters who can follow in Jesus’ footsteps. (4-082, 1958.03.09)
22 Whenever we see something big, we want to make it our own. In our heart, there is nothing we cannot own. Our heart is vast enough to want to bring God to us and attend Him, and vast enough to bring any country that follows God to us, and to bring the world to us. Therefore, attending God in our heart is not a problem; our heart is that big. We want to attend God in our heart. Since God is a loving God and the Absolute Being, we cannot put this being of absolute value anywhere else. People want to go together, be together and live together with the person they love. How do we want to live together with our beloved? We want to go deeply into one another, and become one. This is the original nature of love. (56-149, 1972.05.14)
23 A man must be able to say, “I am the subject partner of perfect love representing men.” A woman must be able to say, “I am the subject partner of perfect love representing women, so you and I absolutely need each other.” What a man absolutely needs on earth, other than God, is a woman. Also, other than God, what a woman absolutely needs is a man. Why is this so? It is so they can receive God’s love. To do this, the man and woman both must stand in the position of true perfection, where even if they could turn back they would not want to, and even if they had a chance to stop loving they would not want to. This is the meaning of attending God. The owner of love is neither man nor woman, but God. (149-100, 1986.11.17)
24 Where can we dig to find God’s love? God’s love does not originate where brothers and sisters love each other. God’s love does not originate with man and woman’s love at the center. God’s love originates in the love between parent and child. There has to be a vertical relationship. Such a relationship is established only through parents’ love, so the parent-child relationship is the foundation for love. In this love there is no distance. In this vertical relationship there must be a center. There is only one center. The center must be the best place. Wherever there are two centers in this world, struggle begins. (28-169, 1970.01.11)
25 If, with true love, you seek a person better than yourself, you must invest 100 percent, then 1,000 percent, and then invest again. When you think you have invested enough, at that moment, everything stops. When God created human beings, He wanted to make His object partners of love greater than Himself, so He invested every ounce of His being. He invested and wanted to invest even more, in order to make His intangible nature completely substantial. Only when you have invested everything and forgotten about your investment can you find the beginning of true love. It is that simple. This is a fundamental principle of the universe. (203-232, 1990.06.26) |