As I pondered the events of Adam and Eve's life, it struck me all at once what an enormous void must have been created in their lives when they were cast out of the Garden.  How could anything replace the daily discourse with and direct love of their Creator?  As we know, they endeavored the rest of their lives to get back to where they had been, to have that at-one-ment.  They understood much better than we the source of the "divine void" that they felt.  They knew that the only way they could fill that aching place inside them was with the living water of Jesus Christ.  They were told, on exiting the Garden, that a Savior would be prepared for them to provide a way to return to the presence of Elohim. (See Moses 5:7-9) 

Then I was galvanized by another thought: because a veil is drawn across our minds when we are born, we each have this "divine void" in our lives.   Through Joseph Smith's modern-day revelation, we are told that we each possess the Light of Christ within us. (D & C 88:6-7).  The love that forged the universe is there inside of each of us.  For my part, I believe that this light warms a little spark of memory of what it was like to live in God's presence.  It feels so good those times when we recognize it.  There is one thing that all human beings seem to hunger for and that is love.  It seems to me that that hunger exists because once we were in the presence of our Father and we felt His warm, nurturing, unconditional love.  We need it so much here during our earthly sojourn.

For the very fortunate, the void is in filled to some extent by family who offer unconditional love, righteous role models, and instructions on how to receive forgiveness and salvation.  These lucky ones grow "in wisdom and in knowledge" and line upon line they are led to the saving ordinances and grow up with a true knowledge of charity.  They know instinctively how to fill the void.  When do you feel that warmth of the Light of Christ?  When you are giving of yourself willingly.  When you are serving gladly.  When you are sacrificing.  Little children seem to know this.  Many missionaries learn this.  Many mother's feel this as they nurture their newborns.  But unless that principle is taught and reinforced in the home, we lose that knowledge as we mature into natural men and women. 

My parents had no knowledge of those things, and so I was not taught.  As a result, I had a dark well of wrenching sadness that I couldn't fill or understand.  Until I learned the truth of the gospel, I was a lost and lonely soul living in what is sometimes called the "existential void."  Philosophers have been trying to understand it since the time of recorded thought.  In a secular society, I believe that the desire to fill that void endemic to mortality has led to many different coping mechanisms.   Many good humans do succeed in filling it with love and service to their fellow man even though they may not have the gospel.  I believe this is the secret of why some people, such as the Pacific Islanders, who have so little materially can be happy.  It is certainly an irony that the more we give, the more we are filled.

That is because the grace and love of Christ magnifies his Light within us and fills us when we follow the two most basic commandments:  loving the Lord with all our heart, might, mind, and strength, and then loving our neighbor as ourselves.(Matt. 22:37-39).   This miracle of changing us from natural to spiritual men and women is only possible because of the cleansing power of the atonement. (Mosiah 3:19)  The at-one-ment Adam and Eve were seeking.  The at-one-ment that we are shown the way to, step by step in the Lord's house: the last ordinances required to make us whole spiritually. 

The power of the atonement is the only thing that can erase our worldly appetites and their sinful consequences.  The Savior stands as mediator between us and our Heavenly Father.  By following His commandments and receiving His ordinances, we can fill that void with "living water" and once again feel the love of our Heavenly Father daily.   Like the woman at the well, we will thirst no more. (John 4: 1-32)

But for those of us who do not understand this idea, we seek to fill that void with other things, dulling our senses so we can't feel it with alcohol, drug abuse, sexual misconduct, extreme adrenaline-producing activities, overindulgence in anything, or even through our friends and mates.  Though going the latter route is going in the right direction, those with abandonment issues (that dull ache that will never go away) take this to extremes and sabotage all their dealings by demanding too much, shutting down in resentment, or trying to exercise control.  There is after all only one friend who will never fail us under any circumstances, and that is Jesus Christ.

My friend who is a paraplegic is one of the happiest people I know, because she does not concentrate on what she is missing in life, but because she has a close and enduring relationship with Christ and goes about doing good.  She certainly sent me off full of the Spirit whenever I left her.

All of the greatest literature is about filling this void.  We are so blessed as Latter-day Saints to have the truth that the world so hungers for.  So much could be changed if we each repented and found the healing power of the atonement, filled our own "divine void" with living water and then gave and gave and gave to those who have none, that they may see the model, the way that was laid out for us by Adam and Eve to go back home to our loving Heavenly Father.