Hardly an expert, so I cannot support my view with scripture. But my belief is that if we are made in His image, and we feel sorrow and suffering, there must be some value to those experiences that cannot be obtained otherwise.
I think about what we learn from those feelings, and it is primarily how we develop compassion for the suffering of others. Could we have been created with compassion and empathy from the outset? Perhaps, but emotional pain is so often connected with our love for others that the process itself deepens the feeling. As with metals that undergo a physical change as the result of extreme heat, we are changed as people after we have gone through grief and sorrow.
And it is our own sinfulness that opens our heart to the forgiveness of others. I guess the point could be made that if there were no sin, there would not be a need to forgive others. But then, there would be no opportunity for us to feel the joy of when we are forgiven.
Well said. I merely wonder why we flawed and easily tempted people were created in the first place. It’s not like the Creator was stuck with us and couldn’t make numerous better people who wouldn’t blow up the engine with the free will He gave them.
There’s an explanation in Heaven, but none here.