[202] Nature is Our First Parent

Nature is Our First Parent God’s Will and the World Let Us Know Ourselves September 30, 1979   Before the entire world comes against you, I will train you myself by pushing you to go a very rigorous way of life. When I do, I will treat you mercilessly and cruelly as if I am acting on behalf of Satan himself. Will you accept it? Not only that, but God will be harder on you than I am. Why can you accept that? It is because you know that by passing the worst possible test, you can inherit the deepest love of God. To receive that unique love, you feel you can bear any heavy burden. Will the people of this conviction look gloomy and unhappy, or will they be the most exuberant, rain or shine? Why do you have to take up this duty and go through the narrow gate of this life I am describing? God created all things and made them with His dual characteristics. Not only are they connected to Him vertically, but to each other horizontally. God is Spirit and the created world is material. The substantial world is horizontal while God and the spirit world are vertical. God's invisible dual essentialities were manifested in visible form, so everything is made in the image of God. Where do you belong here? Each man is a microcosm of the universe. Your body is made of all the elements of the world. Nature supplied the entire ingredients that make your body, which means that the universe made you by giving itself. If nature demanded that you repay everything that nature loaned you, would there be anything left of you? You can feel that the universe gave you birth and made you. Therefore, nature is your first parent. Do you feel good that you are a microcosm of the universe? All the universal formats or formulas can be found in you. You could accurately say that you are a small walking universe that can move, whereas the cosmic universe is stationary. Since you are able to move and act, then you can govern the universe. The universe would want you to exercise dominion over it, so your first duty would be to love nature. Then, wherever you are, you can love the creation and appreciate it. Since you feel such an urge to love the grass, trees, and flowers, the birds and running water, how can you not love your fellow man? When you lie on the beach, you can feel that you are lying in the bosom of your parent, or that when leaning against a tree you are leaning against your own brother. Would nature protest you for doing that? Or, would it sense that you truly love and appreciate it? All things exist for you. When you observe it, you can take pleasure in them for that reason. As a man, you are the only begotten son of the universe, and as a woman you are the only begotten daughter of the universe. Then how much love would be possible between the two? Have you ever had a conversation with the sun, saying that you love it and singing a song of love for it? Many of the people who think of themselves as poets don't even appreciate the depth of this truth, and their poetry is superficial and shallow. Am I telling the truth, or only pretending so? Love the entire nature as your parent Your second parents are your own father and mother. They represent the universe and labored to bring your life into being. Men and women can feel that they are the center of the universe because their parents, representatives of the universe, brought their physical life to this earth. Your parents represent not only father and mother but all mankind — teachers, neighbors, and relatives. When you serve your parents, you are actually serving mankind, not just two particular people. By doing so, you will be loved by all mankind. This is the historical background out of which we can say that our virtue as sons and daughters is to serve our parents with filial piety. Your immediate family and neighbors represent a microcosm of mankind; your sisters represent all women and your brothers represent all men. Therefore, your family is a microcosm of mankind. The true people are those who look at all people as one family of man. If you are a true man or woman, when you see a senior citizen, you look at him as your own parent or grandparent. Other young men and women are your own brothers and sisters. If you are a true man, then you love not only your own family but also all mankind. It is against the Principle to care only for your family and not the rest of the world. If you happen to be white, then it is a most exciting adventure to become a member of your black family, or to find senior citizens and young men and women whom you love as much as your own grandparents and brothers and sisters. If you see someone in dire needs, you want to fill their needs because they are not just your fellow man, but your brother or sister. Here in America, when parents become old and can't take care of themselves, do they go to their children's homes or to senior citizens' homes? Which choice is ideal? Would a grandmother be happier to live with her grandchildren or be visited by them in a senior citizens' home? Are you willing to accept your grandmother into your home? Would you do it in reality, or are you only saying yes because you are here? As a new wife, would you rather go to live with your husband's family with many in-laws, or to live only with him? If you want to live up to the public law of the universe, then you want to go live with his family. You have your own physical parents, but ultimately you have one most important parent who created you — God. Your parents were the instruments that God used to create you. The journey in search of the True Parent begins by loving nature, which is the first parent, then loving your physical parents, and then to the ultimate parent, God, who is our creator. God is the ultimate destination, our eternal Parent. The moment of death, which everyone now fears, is actually the moment of fulfillment. If you live your life in the right way here on earth, then your life leads ultimately to the one common Parent. Then the moment of death actually liberates you to live with that parent for eternity. He is the True Parent to us all, who has true love with no end. Life with God is what we call the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven. The principal atmosphere of that world is supreme love. That love is not self-centered, but is based on sacrifice and service. Because it is based on that universal law, that supreme love flourishes.