Book Four - True Family
Chapter Three - The Family Is the Model for the Kingdom of Heaven
Section 7. The Family is Our Eternal Original Hometown

Family, the family is a good place. Why is it good? It is a good place because my mother and father are there. It is a good place because my elder sister and elder brother are there. It is a good place because my younger brother and younger sister are there, and it is a good place because my relatives are there. Thus, human beings feel nostalgia for their hometown and the land of their original hometown. They feel more deeply about their hometown than they do for the nation. The place you long for even when you live in the Republic of Korea is your hometown.

What place do you long for even though you like Korea, even though you want to live in Korea, and even while you are living in Korea? It is your hometown. Hometown, what kind of place is your hometown? It is a place where your heart is lifted up in four directions and three dimensions. What is that heart? It is a place where you are tied up by love. Upward, your mother and father are tying you up; left and right, the bond between husband and wife is tying you up; downward, your sons and daughters and relatives are tying you up tight with three dimensional love. This is the original hometown.

People cannot help but long for their original hometown because they look upon this starting point of happiness based on love as the best. Then, what kind of place do you think God's original hometown is? What do you think God's land of original hometown is on this earth? We should think about these questions. If God is the God of love, He must surely have prepared a starting point for living on this earth, and where is this starting point? To know this, we must understand how God has prepared that starting point. What kind of place can become the starting point of the original hometown where God's family can be created? It is none other than a place where a son dwells who understands God as his real father. In other words, it is a place where the son, the only-begotten son who can monopolize God's love, exists. Also it is a place where such a daughter dwells. It is a place where such a son and a daughter marry and form a complete family. (23-151, 1969.5.18)

Then who should be in the original hometown? Those who you miss should be there. Your parents should be there and your brothers and sisters should be there. And those who you long to meet should be there. When you want to live with them there, would you be satisfied if you just saw them for a moment? Would you be satisfied if you met and just saw them for a short time? When meeting and living with them, you should not be tired even if you live with them for eternity. You should go and find such a place. This is the Kingdom of Heaven that today's religions pursue. (23-80, 1969.5.11)

Today, the reason we long for the land of our original hometown is that in that hometown there are parents, brothers and sisters, and relatives, who are closer to us than anyone else. They always guide us; they welcome us as they did in the past whenever we visit them, and they sympathize with us, console us and receive us with joy when we are having difficulties. Without this welcome though, even if you longed for your original hometown and returned there, your desperate longing heart would vanish, and you would go back with feelings of deep regret. You should know this. In the original hometown there have to be people who will welcome you. (23-80, 1969.5.11)