Claim. God’s grief over the Fall is the grief of a parent whose only son and only daughter of billions of generations were lost — a relational pain, not abstract divine displeasure, and one that requires a parental rather than judicial response.
Elaboration. SMM frames the Fall’s pain through a parental analogy of absolute particularity: “Adam and Eve were born as the only son and the only daughter of billions of generations… God lost the only son for billions of generations, so the only way to find that son again is to overcome the pain lasting for billions of generations. We have not known that we have such a Heavenly Parent” (5.1. The enemy of love; the bitter pain caused by the Fall, 301-100, 1999.4.20). The pain is intensified by the requirement to love the enemy: “Satan is an adulterer of God’s love… God had to let the enemy Satan embrace Eve. He had to listen to Satan’s accusations ten thousand times and yet He had to love him. That has been God’s position” (ibid, 182-174, 1988.10.16). And: “the Father must love them more than He loves the children He gave birth to. Otherwise there is no way for Eve to return to her original position” (ibid, 235-84, 1992.8.29). This relational-pain register is the affective root of the true-parents doctrine.
See also. han, true-parents