“God made everything! When God made the first man, Adam, he lived in the Garden of Eden with his wife, Eve. They were perfectly happy obeying God and enjoying His presence until one day…”

So begins lesson two of an online Bible survey program for kids. This one is obviously about the fall from the garden, but the title intrigued me: “The Start of Man’s Sadness.”  I wasn’t expecting something so thought provoking at this level.

Most lessons about the fall talk in terms of sin, rebellion and disobedience – and these are certainly important factors – but “The Start of Man’s Sadness” makes me cry.

First of all, it’s just the start. How could Adam and Eve have known that their choices would result in an oil spill in the gulf, a war in Afghanistan, a missing child, or my inability to find my keys this morning? And what of the ramifications of my choices today? Were they mapped out over the course of my life, what would the sum total be? Could I even contain it? It’s just the start, but look how far it goes!

And then there’s the sadness. We can’t escape this. Even with God’s grace and forgiveness, we still have to live with the sadness. For all our sin, rebellion and disobedience, the tragedy is the sadness – that deep inner aching that what we are experiencing is a long way from what we were meant to experience. For Adam and Eve it was the start of the sadness; for us, it is the realization of it.

Jesus was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He knew about the sadness and he felt it every day.

And how does this help me today? It helps me understand the world, and it helps me empathize with those around me. Yes, Jesus put away the sadness once and for all on the cross, but we still have to live in it, for now.