In the first part of these Atonement writings, I talked about the suffering of Jesus Christ. In this section, I want to talk a little more about human suffering.
Sometimes life isn’t fair. It just isn’t. We all suffer in differing amounts and ways, that is definitive and unavoidable. It is exactly what Mother Eve saw as she held all of us in the palm of her hand and tearfully asked, “Is there no other way?”
She saw our suffering. She saw confusion and heart ache, deep, deep sorrow – without answers for any of it. She knew we would flounder and some of us would wander into the depths of despair, lost and broken.
She saw the injustice of traumas that many of us would experience, directly or indirectly. Physical abuse, addiction, rape, loneliness, emotional abuse, madness, physical deformities and dysfunctions. She saw all of it. And saw the possible destruction it would create in our lives. She saw the full and complete potential impact cascading for generations and generations. So why did she still choose it? Why was she so willing to expose all of us to so much pain and devastation?
“It is better for us to pass through sorrow,” she reassured her beloved Adam.
I don’t know if Eve knew of the Atonement of Jesus Christ when she made that fateful decision in the Garden of Eden, but what she did know was the character of her loving Heavenly Father. She knew Him first hand. She knew of His kindness and leadership, His justice, mercy and love, and she rooted her faith in this knowledge.
She and Adam had been given a commandment, a job, to bring us all here to this earth. To give us a chance to learn and grow and become like the Father she knew so well. To give us the hope of knowing an abundance of eternal love and joy that we would have not been able to know otherwise. “Men are that they might have joy.” (2 Nephi 2:25)
When this plan that encompasses so much heartbreak was first presented to us in the pre-mortal existence, we rejoiced with excitement at the opportunity; we even went so far as to fight for it!
So did Eve know of the Atonement of Jesus Christ before she took that first bite of the fruit? I don’t know. But she did know her God. She knew His commandments and character and knew that all that He asked of her would be just. And so she chose for all of us that day, believing, hoping in a Father she knew.
Her divinely intuitive hope was right. Our Heavenly Father did provide a way to make those humanly injustices just. That justice for all is served through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
All of the broken things in this world can be made whole. We don’t need to understand them. We only need to know who God is. Like Eve, we can move forward in faith, not having all of the answers, but knowing that our Father in Heaven is a just God. He is the Master, and we are His. Believe in this. Hope for it. Let it guide your every step. He’s got you.
Forever grateful!
