1. Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence

Divine Providence Is the Form of Government Exercised by the Lord's Divine Love and Wisdom

To understand what divine providence is--that it is the way the Lord's divine love and wisdom govern us--it is important to be aware of the following things, which were presented in my book on the subject.

In the Lord, divine love is a property of divine wisdom and divine wisdom is a property of divine love (Divine Love and Wisdom 34-39).

Divine love and wisdom cannot fail to be and to be manifested in others that it has created (Divine Love and Wisdom 47-51).

Everything in the universe was created by divine love and wisdom (Divine Love and Wisdom 52, 53, 151-156).

Everything in the created universe is a vessel of divine love and wisdom (54-60 [55-60]).

The Lord looks like the sun to angels; its radiating warmth is love and its radiating light is wisdom (Divine Love and Wisdom 83-88, 89-92, 93-98, 296-301).

The divine love and wisdom that emanate from the Lord constitute a single whole (Divine Love and Wisdom 99-102).

The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, created the universe and everything in it from himself and not from nothing (Divine Love and Wisdom 282-284, 290-295). These propositions may be found in the work titled Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom.

151. The Lord created the universe and everything in it by means of that sun that is the first emanation of divine love and wisdom. "The Lord" means God from eternity or Jehovah, who is called the Father and the Creator, because as explained in Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord, the Lord and the Father are one. When I return to the topic of creation below [282-357], therefore, I will refer to "the Lord."

163. There would be no creation if it were not for this pair of suns, one living and one dead. Generally speaking, the universe is divided into two worlds, a spiritual one and a physical one. Angels and spirits are in the spiritual world, and we are in the physical world. These two worlds are exactly alike in outward appearance, so much alike that there is no way to tell them apart; but as to inner appearance, they are completely different. The very people who are in the spiritual world (who are called angels and spirits, as I have just said) are spiritual beings; and since they are spiritual beings, they think spiritually and talk spiritually. On the other hand, we who are in the physical world are physical, so we think physically and talk physically. Spiritual thought and speech and physical thought and speech have nothing in common. We can see from this that the two worlds, the spiritual one and the physical one, are completely distinct from each other, so much so that there is no way for them to be in the same place.