Cheon Seong Gyeong: Episode 171

Cheon Seong Gyeong Book 6: True Creation
Chapter 3: The Creation's Lament and True Stewardship
Section 5: Restoration of the Original Eden, 07-18

(7)  Science attempts to explain the formulas, axioms, principles, and laws of the created world and of all things in nature. Literature attempts to express the inner lyrical sentiment of nature, while the arts in their various forms express the apparent or hidden beauty of nature. Philosophy also tries to explain the basic principles of nature. Religion, however, is on a higher level than all of these. Then what is it that true religion should explain? It should explain the deep emotional feeling that flows through the heart of nature. This is religion's responsibility.

(8)  It is unimaginable that human culture would exist separate from nature. We cannot speak about human culture apart from nature. No matter how much people boast of their influence or assert their power if they ignore nature, it is all of no use.  Nature not only enriches our lives, it is indispensable to our earthly lives. Therefore, if you cannot feel the heart that flows within all natural things, you cannot enjoy true happiness in your life and you cannot rise to a position of glory where you can relate to God.

(9)  Even when you contemplate a blade of grass, you should be able to do so from God’s perspective. When you look at a flower, you should do so with the heart of God. When you look at insects, birds, or all other animals, your inner feelings should connect with the heart of God. If there were a person like this who could connect with the heart of God, even one who could not explain nature through the logic of science using formulas and definitions, could not express feelings through literature, could not display the beauty of nature through art, or had no energy to feel the love of nature, still that person would be a great scientist, writer, artist, philosopher, and religious leader.

The qualifications for us to become lords of creation

(10)  Every day our eyes are stimulated by the things of creation. However, we often take these things for granted, as if they were commonplace. If we human beings had not fallen, all of nature would have conformed to God’s original ideal of nature-based on goodness. We should reflect upon how our original ancestors looked at and felt about nature, and upon God’s original feeling toward nature.

(11)  Have you ever wished you could enter into a mystical state or into the realm of God’s grace and look at a flower from that perspective? Have you ever regarded a flower with the same sincere heart you would express toward an ancestor you longed to meet? Have you ever looked at the mountains and rivers and felt such incredible inspiration from nature that you spontaneously burst forth praising God? If you have never had this kind of experience, I can only conclude that you are not qualified to be a lord of creation.

(12)  When you open your eyes in the morning and look at the natural world, your original nature is stirred and you are inspired with a fresh ideal. As for the human world, the more you see of it, the more despair and sorrow it arouses in your heart. If original people who had not fallen populated the world, the value of human beings would not bestir sorrow in the heart of the beholder. Human beings were not created with the same value as a blade of grass, a flower, or a tree. We were meant to be noble beings who could not be exchanged for anything in the created world.  Human beings were supposed to be born with incomparable value, representing the glory of heaven.

(13)  We should not frown on or lament the environment we see around us, and we should not despair at social injustice. Instead, we should become people who are able to forget our sorrowful hearts with the joy of looking at a single blade of grass growing. Such a person will remain into the new age. A person who seeks a relationship with God is one who seeks the ideal and the world of heart. When you look at a blade of grass, try to feel the amazing heart behind it. God is there and eternal life is there. You should not look at a mountain peak with the same feeling from one day to the next. If we could experience a different feeling in each season--spring, summer, autumn, and winter—and could sing of each unique feeling, wouldn't it be wonderful? Such a person is one who can harmonize with all of nature.

(14)  What kind of nature are we looking at; what kind of land are we standing on? Sadly, this land is fallen land. Instead of a land of happiness, it has become a land of sorrow. When we look at the creation, rather than feeling that it is good, we should feel the sad situation of all things of creation, which remain in the realm of lamentation. Even as we enjoy gazing at a place of scenic beauty—the mountains and rivers, for example—we should also be able to feel deep sorrow and connect to our Heavenly Father's heart.

(15)  While holding a blade of grass, rather than feeling happy we should be weeping in sorrow. Even though we feel inner joy hugging a tree, we should be able to shed tears. While gazing at mountains and rivers, we should be sighing deeply. We feel such emotion because deep in our hearts we miss the original garden of Eden. God, as the Creator, is the one who feels this most deeply. A person who looks at nature with such a heart cannot help but long for the garden of Eden. If we long for the original Eden, we should also long for the original person who can govern all things of creation in that garden.

(16)  If we ask God if He had even one hour in the original garden of Eden together with Adam and Eve, singing and sharing their feelings about nature, the answer would be "No." I'm sure God wanted to say, "My son, look at that mountain! I made it in such-and-such a way. Look at the grass and the trees. I made them like this and like that. See, I made all of this for you, for your happiness." The fact is God never had a chance to speak such words to Adam. Why not? It is because Adam was not yet mature. We should understand God s deep desire to say such things to His children. We need to understand God’s heart and situation. Since Adam was emotionally immature, God was unable to speak like this.

(17)  Our hearts should long for the original garden of Eden. We should become people who long for the world that God has loved with boundless love, the world in which God’s love continues forever, the world in which we can sing and become forever intoxicated in song, the world in which we leap and want to keep leaping forever with God, the world in which, once we act and take responsibility, our deeds have eternal value and our responsibility endures forever. God’s sorrow is that he could not find people with such a heart. God, who is leading the providence on this earth, must eventually find such a person. By loving nature we can elevate our emotions; this is why we often sing about mountains and rivers.

(18)  If there were a person who could stand up for and call out to God, with a deep heart and a sense of mission to restore all things and people, our Father, God, would surely acknowledge that person. If there were a person looking for the original garden of Eden with such a sincere heart, he or she would be the original, true person whom God, humankind, and all things of creation would be proud of.  Then all created things in the original garden of Eden, the people living there, and God, who would visit there, would not be separate. Instead, centered on this one person, with God above and all things below, they would all live together harmoniously in one home. This person would be the one whom God could love, the one for whom all people could live, and the true owner whom all created things would respect.