DP 187
(4) It is granted a person
to see Divine providence from behind
and not from in front,
and in a spiritual state
and not in the person's natural state.
To see Divine providence from behind
and not from in front
is to see it afterward and not beforehand.
And to see it
from the perspective of a spiritual state
and not from that of a natural state
is to see it from the perspective of heaven
and not from the perspective of the world.
DP 189
A person who has become spiritual
by his acknowledgement of God
and wise by his renunciation of his native character,
sees Divine providence in the whole world
and in each and every constituent of it.
If he contemplates natural phenomena he sees it.
If he contemplates civil affairs he sees it.
If he contemplates spiritual matters he sees it.
And this in both
the concurrent and sequential occurrences of things.
In ends, in causes, in effects, in useful endeavors,
in forms, in things great and small, he sees it.
Especially does he see it in the salvation of people -
as in the fact that Jehovah provided the Word,
that by it He taught them about God,
heaven and hell, and eternal life,
and that He came into the world
to redeem and save mankind.
These things and more,
and the Divine providence in them,
the person sees from spiritual light in natural light.
The merely natural person, however,
sees none of these things.
He is like one who sees a magnificent temple
and hears a preacher enlightened in Divine matters,
and says at home that he saw only a stone building
and heard only someone talking.
Or he is like a nearsighted person
who goes into a garden filled with fruits of every kind,
and afterward goes home
and reports that he saw only a wood and trees.
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