9. THE FAMILY AS A TEXTBOOK OF HEAVEN

You are standing in the place and the position of children. Moreover, you are destined to inherit the fortune of your grandparents and parents. Why do you need grandparents? It's because they represent the past. They represent the real history of the past. Next, what do parents stand for? They stand for the present era. Consequently, the children stand for the future. That's how everything is involved there. The center of all--grandparents, parents, and children--is moving toward True Love. You had better remember this when you think of your family. To love and respect your grandfather is to inherit and learn the past. You can learn the present from your father. To love and cherish children is to learn the future. What you could inherit from grandparents and parents is True Love, the lineage of True Love. If the grandfather and grandmother become one with each other, then the mother and father will become one also, centering on True Love. We should be one and inherit the future. We cannot inherit the future without forming a true family.

Through these three things, we can understand the universe. God stands for all history, and the true family represents the present and the future.

It means that the family is a textbook to show how to learn the love of the universe. If there isn't a grandfather or a grandmother in your family, you may feel something lacking. Accordingly, a family should have the necessary parts. Then the family can be realized in the Kingdom of Heaven with the true shape and with the true members. The person who deserves to go to the Kingdom of Heaven is the one who loves the true grandparents, true parents, true children, true family, true nation, and the true universe. The family is the textbook of the heavenly world.

The grandfather loves the father and mother even at the risk of his life. How amazing and wonderful he is! In the same way, the mother and father love their sons and daughters at the risk of their lives. How amazing and wonderful they are! In conclusion, True Love is something which lets a person even die for the others' sakes in a family: the grandfather is for the grandchildren's sake, the parents for the children's sake, the children for the parents' sake, the elder sister for the younger's sake, the younger for the elder's sake, the husband for the wife's sake, the wife for the husband's sake, the grandmother for the grandfather's sake, and the grandfather for the grandmother's sake. (162-140)

Now that the young members of the Unification Church have understood the Will, they should take the old grandmother and grandfather out of the nursing home. It is high time for them to do so. If they would do so, would the old grandparents like it? [Yes, they would like it.] What do the young people think? [They will like it.] What makes you think so? It's because you have learned the teaching of the Principle from the Unification Church. Before you learned that, you might have disliked the old.

You fellows, you will be failures if you send your fathers and mothers to nursing homes. You have to offer a prayer, "Oh, Heavenly Father, my father, my mother, and myself, these three generations must become absolutely one in heart and love, so please God, be with us." You should pray like that, then you are able to go to the Kingdom of Heaven. Otherwise, you cannot go there.

Well, of your grandfather, father and you, who would be the closest person to God? [It's the grandfather.] That's right. Then, who can be the second closest person? [It's the father.] And then? It's you. Therefore, you should understand that you can't restore the original state until you inherit the blessing of the grandfather, grandmother, father and mother. You alone, if there is no vertical world can't connect yourself to the Kingdom of Heaven. That situation can't establish any four-position foundation. (130-134)