After Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden, the Savior testified to them that He would overcome the effects of the Fall. “As thou hast fallen thou mayest be redeemed,” He said, “and all mankind, even as many as will” (Moses 5:9).
Eve immediately recognized that their Fall and the Savior’s Atonement were both beneficial:
Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.
Moses 5:11
Her words echo Lehi’s later teaching to his son Jacob. If Adam and Eve had remained in the Garden of Eden, he explained, “they 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” (2 Nephi 2:23).
But their Fall was always part of God’s plan. “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25).
Eve’s statement about the joy of her redemption suggests confidence in a future event, but it could also represent an awareness of the Savior’s grace in her current mortal experience. She might have recognized that as the Savior helped her grow, she would find fulfillment and happiness in her progress, and in the progress of the people she loved.
Sister Kristin M. Yee testified:
Jesus Christ is mighty to save. … He holds the power of redemption and resurrection. …
He can heal the “waste places” of your soul—the places made dry, harsh, and desolate by sin and sorrow—and “make [your] wilderness like Eden.” …
Each day is a new day filled with hope and possibilities because of Jesus Christ. Each day you and I can come to know, as Mother Eve proclaimed, “the joy of our redemption,” the joy of being made whole, the joy of feeling God’s unfailing love for you.
“The Joy of Our Redemption,” General Conference, October 2024
Today, I will find joy in the redemption Jesus offers to me and to all of God’s children. I will look for signs of His redemptive grace in my growth, and I will be grateful for the joy I experience as a result.
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