From Bruce C. Hafen and his book “Covenant Hearts” Marriage and the Joy of Human Hearts:
In the scriptures and in the temple, we learn that the primal doctrine story that links the three-act plan of salvation with marriage and the story of Adam and Eve. From earth’s first day the purpose of marriage and the purpose of mortality have been tightly interwoven. First, God Himself commanded that “a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).
Lehi also taught his children that if Adam and Eve had not transgressed, they would have remained in the Garden of Eden. Had that happened, Adam and Eve “Would have had no children: wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy for they knew no misery, doing no good for they knew no sin. . . . Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have Joy” (2 Nephi 2:23-25; italics added).
Astute parents will notice an interesting little connection here: No children, no misery! There is actually some truth to that point. For without being expelled from the innocent comfort of Eden into the turbulence of mortality, Adam and Eve would not only have had no children, and no misery, but they never would have found joy; hence the very meaning of life would have been lost on them. There really is a deep connection between the hard things of life and the best things of life.
The Lord taught Adam and Eve not only that they should “cleave” to one another but that they must live and bear children in sorrow, sweat, and thorns of mortality—not as some kind of punishment for disobedience, but so that through sometimes bitter experience, they could come to really understand life and meaning and joy. “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” (Doctrine & Covenants 29:39); italics added). In other words, sometimes the twists and turns of life are the strait and narrow path.
The story of Adam and Eve is the pattern for our own marriages, our lives, and the personal meaning of the Atonement. 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 the 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 word; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17). If, therefore, God allows us to learn from our experience without condemning us for it, how much more should we be willing to let our companions learn from their experiences without condemning them for it.
The poem, “Lamentation” breathes life and sinew into the story of Adam, and Eve. It was written by Arta Romney Ballif, a sister of President Marion G. Romney. Here she imagines Eve’s experience as a mother and wife—her honest questions, her hunger to understand the Lord, Note the symbols of mortality here—the fruit of both the garden and of the body; “the storm,” the repetition of “multiply” and “sorrow.” Here in all its sometimes furious opposition—part of the plan for all of us—is act two.
The poem L A M E N T A T I O N, by Arta Romney Ballif, gives depth to Adam, Eve and the events surrounding the Fall
And God said, “be fruitful, and multiply—”
Multiply, multiply—echoes multiply
God said, “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow—”
Thy sorrow, sorrow, sorrow—
I have gotten a man from the Lord
I have traded the fruit of the garden for the fruit of my body
For a laughing bundle of humanity.
And another one who looks like Adam.
We shall call this one “Abel.”
It is a lovely name, “Abel.”Cain, Abel, the world is yours.
God set the sun in the heavens to light your days,
To warm the flocks, to kernel the grain.
He illuminated your nights with stars.
He made the trees and the fruit thereof yielding seed.
He made every living thing, the wheat, the sheep, the cattle,
For your enjoyment.
And, behold, it is very good. Adam? Adam
Adam? Adam,
Where art thou?
Where are the boys?
The sky darkens with clouds.
Adam, is that you?
Where is Abel?
He is long caring for his flocks.
The sky is black and the rain hammers.
Are the ewes lambing In this storm?
Why your troubled face, Adam?
Are you ill?
Why so pale, so agitated?
The wind will pass
The lambs will birth
With Abel’s help.
Dead?
What is dead? Merciful God!
Hurry, bring warm water
I’ll bathe his wounds
Bring clean clothes
Bring herbs.
I’ll heal him.
I am trying to understand.
You said, “Abel is dead.”
But I am skilled with herbs
Remember when he was seven
The fever? Remember how—
Herbs will not heal?
Dead?
And Cain? Where is Cain?
Listen to that thunder.
Cain cursed?
What has happened to him?
God said, “a fugitive and a vagabond”?
But God can’t do that.
They are my sons, too.I gave them birth, In the valley of pain.
Adam, try to understand
In the valley of pain
I bore them
fugitive?
vagabond?
This is his home. This the soil he loved.
Where he toiled for golden wheat For tasseled corn. To the hill country? There are rocks in the hill country Cain can’t work in the hill country, Cold and lonely and the wind gales. Quick, we must find him, a basket of bread and his coat. I worry, thinking of his wandering with no place to lay his head. Cain cursed? A wanderer, a roamer? Who will bake his bread and mend his coat? Abel, my son, dead? And Can my son, a fugitive?
Two sons, Adam we had two sons Both—oh Adam—multiply, sorrow—Dear God, Why? Tell me again about the fruit. Why? Please, tell me again. . . . Why? ~~~From Bruce C. Hafen and his book “Covenant Hearts” Marriage and the Joy of Human Hearts: p.65-70 (continued).
