Adam and Eve, the Atonement, and My Fresh Start

The reading that blew me away this week was from Bruce C. Hafen's Book, Covenant Hearts. We read chapter six this week, entitled, The Doctrinal Pattern of Adam and Eve: No Misery, No Joy. I sent copies of the chapter out to my family and I hope to add some of their responses in my blog post for this week.

It really seems that as a people, we seem to lack understanding of the doctrines taught in this chapter. Sometimes I have wondered if the phrase “if you keep the commandments, you shall prosper in the land” that is used over and over again in the Book of Mormon, isn’t one of the least understood phrases in all of scripture. We seem to read that and take it’s meaning to be, bad things won’t happen to good people. And we read it over and over again, and continue to believe that we understand it’s meaning, when we’re really failing to apply a basic understanding of the Plan of Salvation to our interpretation.

I think it must be proof of how competently the veil operates that we really hope for and expect life to be easy and uneventful! If we really remembered the whole plan, we would surely be more excepting of the reality that this life is meant to be anything but a smooth ride. We are here to learn things by experience. And that’s an opportunity that we couldn’t be given any other way, than to come face to face with painful opposition, disappointment, and pain. Bruce Hafen explains it very well when he says:

• “They taste the bitter,” the Lord explained to Adam, “that they may know to prize the good” (Moses 6:55). In fact, He said, “If they never should have bitter [experiences] they could not know the sweet” (D&C 29:39; italics added) In other words, sometimes the twists and turns of life are the straight and narrow path.

So when we come face to face with the trial of mortality and the effects of living in a fallen world, the last concern we ought to have is why God would allow these things to happen to us. Following that angle of thought winds us up into destructive circles. We came knowingly to a fallen world. And we came knowing that as long as we continued trusting in God, it would all be okay because central to the Father’s perfect Plan was His Son. Elder Hafen explains:

• The story of Christ’s life is the story of giving the atonement. But the story of Adam and Eve is the story of receiving the atonement. Especially in that sense, their lives and their marriage set a pattern for our own.

• Because they received the Atonement of Christ, Adam and Eve were able to learn from their experience without being condemned by it. “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17) 

I’m starting to finally operate my life with this understanding. I used to tell my Beehive class all the time, because of Christ’s atonement, we can learn from our mistakes. That’s the gift that He gave us, was the opportunity to learn without justice cutting us off from the presence of our Father forever.

• …because they accepted the Atonement of Christ, Adam and Eve, Lehi and Sariah, could all grow from their experiences without suffering irreparable damage. With their family life as their main place of spiritual schooling, they learned from both miser and joy, discovering firsthand that “God …shall consecrate thine afflictions for they gain” (2 Nephi 2:2)

• Adam and Eve didn’t understand all of this just by tasting the forbidden fruit. That fruit was by the beginning of a lifelong quest for meaning- not an event but an extended process, marked by having children and discovering misery, sin, goodness, joy, and the very meaning of eternal life.

 

Because this freedom that He bought us, we can actually look forward to better things that what we have ever known. When I read this next quote from Bruce Hafen, I think about our return to glory, and what a fantastic experience we will have earned in that return.

• After all of this, then when Adam and Eve returned “home” to God’s presence, being with Him in act three was very different from their having been with Him in act one. They didn’t simply return to the innocence of Eden, as if the Atonement wiped out their very experience.

• Rather, they progressed, until they reached the Lord’s presence. But this time they understood what they could never have known in Eden- now they knew what I meant to be there, with Him, and with each other. 

I think that I have experienced this to some extent in my own life. When we experience great loss, we quickly and deeply understand the meaning of what was once taken for granted. Losing the love and support of my husband and the dreams that I had for our relationship and our family was at moments more than I could bear. It was certainly more than I ever could have borne alone. I spent some time wondering how this could have happened to me, and why I was not protected from this, since I had always done my best to follow His plan and keep His commandments. I sometimes wondered, if keeping the commandments wasn’t enough to keep me from THIS, what was it really good for?

I still don’t know the end from the beginning, but some things have become clear. One beautiful truth that I am very grateful for is that hard work and faith combined can be potent enough to drum up a fresh start. I’m so very grateful for the fresh start that I’ve been given, ans I’ve also seen fresh starts occur in broken marriages that stayed and healed together.

A section of a poem by T.S. Eliot was shared in this chapter that has amazing meaning for the intrinsic rewards of our mortal experience, but it also has personal meaning to me as I look forward with courage into my fresh start.

• We shall not cease for exploration
• And the end of all our exploring
• Will be to arrive where we started
• And know the place for the first time.
• T.S. Eliot

Revett Lake, ID

 
One of the great things about my new relationship are the fun adventures that we go on together. A lot of the time that we have spent together has been out in nature, setting off down new paths and enjoying the experience of sharing the beautiful things we see and feel as we go. The tradition of exploring together that we have started is something that we both cherish and want to nurture. 

Because we have each loved and been disappointed, the beauty of this new chance has special value to us. In some ways it's like being sent back in time. Back to the task that we so earnestly pursued in our early twenties of finding a partner and an eternal companion. But even though we are back where we started we are not here at this point with out our experience. That experience gives us new eyes which realize the miracle of a fresh start. Miraculously, this fresh start seems to compensate for and make some sense of the pain of our education.