2. Further, if we put these propositions together with what I said about creation in that work, it shows that the way the Lord's divine love and wisdom look after us is what we call divine providence. However, since that book was about creation and not about how the state of things was maintained after creation (which is the way the Lord is looking after us), I need to deal with that now. In this section, though, I will be dealing with the way the oneness of divine love and wisdom (or of what is good and true in divinity) is maintained in what has been created; and I will do so in the following sequence:

1. The universe as a whole and in every detail was created out of divine love, by means of divine wisdom.

2. Divine love and wisdom radiate from the Lord as a single whole.

3. There is some image of this whole in everything that has been created.

4. It is the intent of divine providence that everything created, collectively and in every detail, should be this kind of whole, and that if it is not, it should become one.

5. The good that love does is actually good only to the extent that it is united to the truth that wisdom perceives, and the truth that wisdom perceives is actually true only to the extent that it is united to the good that love does.

6. If the good that love does is not united to the truth that wisdom perceives, it is not really good, but it may seem to be; and if the truth that wisdom perceives is not united to the good that love does, it is not really true, but it may seem to be.

7. The Lord does not let anything remain divided. This means that things must be focused either on what is both good and true or on what is both evil and false.

8. If something is focused on what is both good and true, then it is something; but if it is focused on what is both evil and false, it is not anything at all.

9. The Lord's divine providence works things out so that what is both evil and false promotes balance, evaluation, and purification, which means that it promotes the union of what is good and true in others.

The leading scientific theory of creation is what’s called the “Big Bang.” It says that everything - all energy and matter in the universe, and even time and space themselves - started in one moment of unthinkable power in a point so small as to have no space at all. That power ballooned out to form time and space, and as it kept ballooning the power stretched and cooled enough to start forming patterns, which eventually got dense enough to form sub-atomic particles, which eventually clumped to form atoms, which eventually clumped to form stars, planets, air, water, simple life forms and ultimately people.

That theory has strong parallels to Swedenborg’s statements on reality. In a sense, Divine Love - the infinite love that is the essence and ultimate being of the Lord - is that infinite power that was without time or space at the moment of creation. Divine Wisdom - the “image of love,” as Swedenborg puts it - is that first ballooning to create time and space. It does not have any particular form; it can’t be identified or measured. But it exists, and its existence makes it possible for love to take form.

That sounds pretty distant from the idea of “wisdom” we all have. In everyday life, “wisdom” simply means the ability to make good, thoughtful decisions and judgments. If you dig into that idea, though, it’s not that different really. Those good, thoughtful decisons are generally not simply based in facts - they are a mix of facts and love, of facts and the desire for the best possible outcome. And when you get right down to it, true wisdom actually leads with love, with the desire for the best, most caring and most helpful outcome for all involved. The facts and ideas are really there to be organized by that desire, to give it a way to express itself. So just as in the paragraph above, wisdom is really an arena where love can take form, a medium that allows love to have an image.

Of course, such wisdom for us is sort of a mental area where we can do this kind of thinking. For the Lord this “mental area” is time and space itself, even reality itself, where love can be constantly channeled into forms that draw us toward heaven.

(सन्दर्भ: Apocalypse Revealed 189; Arcana Coelestia 1226; Conjugial Love 130; Divine Love and Wisdom 34, 35, 39, 180, 213, 287, 358; True Christian Religion 242, 350)