2. Where We Experience Universal Love

What is the purpose of the universe? God designed everything in the created world as study materials to help His beloved sons and daughters understand and fulfill the ideal of love. This is why everything exists in mutual relationships.
Look at the world of minerals: their elements interact in partnerships one to another. Atoms consist of protons and electrons interacting in mutual relationships. Without such interactions they could not continue to exist. Without motion there is no permanence or continued existence.
Nevertheless, the universe is created in such a way that all things of creation can have access to its central point – true love – only through human beings. (137-59, 12/18/1985)

The world is the family in macrocosm. A family that has fully realized the ideal of love has an above (parents), a middle (husband and wife) and a below (children), right and left (husband and wife), and front and back (siblings). This is the basic pattern. All relationships of higher and lower can be likened to that between parents and children; right and left can be likened to husband and wife; and front and back to relationships between brothers and sisters.
What can bring all these relationships into unity? Can money, power or knowledge? These will never do it. Only true love can do it. This is the clear truth. Without true love, the family cannot have a spherical shape. Why is it important for our families to have good relationships between parents and children (higher and lower), and between brothers and sisters (those on the same level)? They are study materials for developing our love. We take the lessons learned from our family relationships and practice them in the wider world.
How should we love? Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” What did he mean? He meant that when you meet an old man, you should treat him as you would your own grandfather. Treat women and men of your parents’ age as you would your own mother and father, and treat young people as you would your own sons and daughters. As you treat the members your family, so should you treat all people of the world. The world can be compared to an exhibition hall filled with all different kinds of people. Some are older than you, some are the same age and some are younger. Some are ahead of you and some are behind, or to the right or to the left.
The world presents you with all these different kinds of people. If you can love each of them with the appropriate kind of love, God will dwell with you in the midst of that love. (128-23, 05/29/1985)

What is the Kingdom of Heaven? It is where you love the people of the world as you love your own family. If you can do this, you will be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. Your grandfather and grandmother, your mother and father, your spouse, your siblings and your children – four generations of family members – provide life lessons for you to deeply experience love. Citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven begin to experience the true love of the universe in their family. Therefore, your family is the foundation and the study material for learning life’s basic lessons. (129-96, 10/01/1983)

We cannot live without learning to be people of universal love. God has prepared textbooks and scriptures that teach us the way. First He tells us: “Love your grandmother and grandfather. Your grandmother and grandfather on earth were sent to you as representatives of all your ancestors in the spirit world. By loving your grandparents, I will credit you as having loved them all.” This is His pledge.
Next God says, “I hold your mother and father to be textbooks and models representing the countless mothers and fathers in the world. Therefore, when you show exceptional love for your mother and father, I will credit you as having loved all mothers and fathers.”
God also says, “I hold that when a man loves his wife, he represents all the men in the world and his wife represents all the women in the world. Therefore, when you love your wife, I regard it as though you have loved all women in the world.”
Then God says: “When you have loved your sons and daughters, I will credit you as having loved all sons and daughters.” In this way, our family is where we are trained to be people of universal love.
We rely on scripture to guide us in cultivating ourselves to love the world. After you have received this training, God will ask you: “Are you ready now to go into the world and love the grandfathers and grandmothers of the world as you love your own grandparents?” If you can confidently answer “Yes,” then you are surely capable of saving the world. (130-273, 02/05/1984)