3. Devotion to God as a Bride for Her Bridegroom

World Scripture

Upon my bed by night
I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him, but found him not;
I called him, but he gave no answer.
“I will rise now and go about the city,
in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my soul loves.”
I sought him, but found him not.
The watchmen found me,
as they went about the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
Scarcely had I passed them,
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go
until I had brought him into my mother’s house,
and into the chamber of her that conceived me.³⁰
Song of Solomon 3.1-4

As the mirror to my hand,
the flowers to my hair,
kohl to my eyes,
tambul to my mouth,
musk to my breast,
necklace to my throat,
ecstasy to my flesh,
heart to my home—
As wing to bird,
water to fish,
life to the living—
so you are to me.
But tell me,
Madhava, beloved,
who are you?
Who are you really?
Vidyapati says, They are one another.³¹
Vidyapati (Hinduism)

How may I live, Mother, without the Lord?
Glory to Thee, Lord of the Universe!
To praise Thee I seek;
Never without the Lord may I live.
The Bride is athirst for the Lord;
All night is she awake lying in wait for Him.
The Lord has captured my heart;
He alone knows my agony:
Without the Lord the soul is in travail and pain—
Seeking His Word and the touch of His feet.
Show Thy grace, Lord; immerse me in Thyself.
Adi Granth, Sarang, M.1, p. 1232 (Sikhism)

My beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away;
for lo, the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away.
O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
in the covert of the cliff,
let me see your face,
let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is comely.”
Song of Solomon 2.10-14

Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at table, a woman³² came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. But there were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment thus wasted? For this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and given to the poor.” And they reproached her. But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you will, you can do good to them; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
Mark 14.3-9

O Rama… I wish to be with thee! I shall experience no fatigue in following thee, even if I may no longer rest near thee on a luxurious couch. The harsh grass, the reeds, the rushes and thorny briars on the way, in thy company, will seem as soft as lawns or antelope skins! The dust raised by the tempest that covers me will resemble rare sandalwood paste, O my dear Lord. When, in the dense forest, I sleep beside thee on a grassy couch, soft as a woolen coverlet, what could be more pleasant to me? Leaves, roots, fruits, whatever it may be, little or much, that thou hast gathered with thine own hand to give to me, will taste of ambrosia!… To be with thee is heaven, to be without thee is hell; this is the truth!³³
Ramayana, Ayodhya Kanda 30 (Hinduism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon

God is the eternal Lord of our bodies and the eternal Lord of our hearts. Consider the most loving couple in the original world: The wife will not resent the husband for loving God more than he loves her. Likewise, the wife may love God more than she loves her husband, but the husband will not complain, “Why do you love God more than you love me?” The Kingdom of Heaven is the world where both husband and wife rejoice to see such a thing. God is our Subject Partner, transcending any earthly love. He is the eternal Lord of our bodies. As long as God embraces us in His bosom, as long as we dwell within His garden, we do not mind if we die right there. Since our hearts are united with their eternal Lord, what more could we ask for?
(7:255, September 20, 1959)

If a woman feels about a man, “If I could be with that man, I wouldn’t care if I died,” and she is joined with that man, she wants nothing else under heaven. She doesn’t care if she eats well or poorly. She doesn’t care if she cries. She doesn’t care if she even dies. There is nothing greater for her. In the same way, as human beings, our highest ambition is to take possession of God’s love. When we do, we become the lords of the universe and possess the authority of a king, even a king of kings.
God endowed everyone, whether handsome or unattractive, with such ambition. It is God’s original ideal that all people have this desire in common, so that everyone will naturally arrive at this destination.
The oneness of God and human beings through love: How can God and human beings, one vertical and the other horizontal, become one? God’s love is perpendicular to human love. For this reason, God sent the Holy Spirit after Jesus ascended into heaven. The Holy Spirit is the love of the mother…
The Kingdom of God on Earth, the messianic ideal, is for realizing God’s vertical love on the horizontal plane. After God sends the returning Lord to this earth and establishes him in the center, he develops God’s domain horizontally. It is accomplished in two ways. First, mind and body are no longer two, but become one. Second, man (representing mind) and woman (body) establish a mutual relationship and become the radiating center for the harmony of heaven and earth.
(252:119, November 14, 1993)

The Fall was not the failure to consider God’s circumstances. It was the failure to consider His heart. As God seeks fallen humanity, He has the heart that is capable of relating with His lost sons and daughters, but He does not have people with whom to share this heart. Therefore, God has worked to find and establish such people. You need to clearly know that this has been the providence of salvation and the purpose for sending the Savior.
Before we wish for the Kingdom of Heaven, we should desire for God’s heart; and before we wish for God’s heart, we should first reflect on how we should live or lives. First of all, we should have a heart of attendance. It is the original character of human beings to long for what is exalted and precious, and on finding it, to bow our heads before it. We human beings fell, but we were created with a heart that desires to relate with the exalted and precious heart of Heaven. We learn how to communicate at this level of heart through a life of attendance.³⁴ Therefore, anyone who has never experienced a life of attendance does not have even the slightest connection with the Kingdom of Heaven.
(8:291, February 14, 1960)

Father! Today please let our bodies move, our minds move
and our thoughts move in the garden of Thy heart.
We realize Thy heart is a heart of infinite love,
a heart of infinite sorrow pierced with an infinity of wounds…
Exceedingly sorrowful Father;
Thou hast worked exceedingly hard,
and still even now Thy heart feels exceedingly anxious!…
May we become sons and daughters who offer our full devotion,
giving our entire minds and bodies,
until we can be recognized as having no inadequacies before Thy heart.
We do not want Heaven to give us anything material,
we do not want Heaven to understand our situation,
and we do not want Heaven to give us grace—
only allow us to know Thine innermost heart.
(8:262, February 7, 1960)