Could We Have Known?

I sometimes wonder whether we knew what we were getting ourselves into when we decided to accept God's plan and come to Earth. At first, it seemed to me that we couldn't have known. After all, how can a being that has never had a body possibly know what having a body feels like? However, I have realized that there might have been a way.

There was at least One Person who knew what mortality was like. God, Our Heavenly Father, had experienced mortality before. If He had any way to explain to us what it was like, or to communicate directly to our spirits what it would feel like, there's a chance we could have understood.

Of course, that would only have told us about His experience. It wouldn't necessarily have told us about ours. However, I think there's a way God could have done that, too. God knows the end from the beginning. He perceives time differently than we do. It may be that He knows the future well enough that it's as though He had already experienced it. And it's certainly true that He has a great deal of empathy. Perhaps, after our earthly experience, He will use His great empathy to understand exactly what we went through, perhaps even feel it Himself. If He does, then it could be said that He will experience everything we are now experiencing, and if He ever will experience it, it would have been as though He already had.

Back in the Pre-Mortal Council, He could have looked toward the future to the time when we would help Him understand exactly what we will have gone through in this life. Then, with that future experience fresh in His mind, He could have transfered it into our minds. Thus, God could have let us understand everything that we were going to experience, and we could then make an informed decision whether or not to go through with it.

I understand that this method is convoluted, especially compared to a much simpler method. God, being omniscient, would have known what we were going to go through, and He, being omnipotent, could have transfered some or all of that knowledge to us.  Granted, the only thing that changes in that scenario is how God came by the information of what we would experience, but it involves less future-sight, so it's a bit easier to grasp.

Personally, I think we did know what we would be getting ourselves into. God could have helped us understand what mortality was going to be like, and I think He would want us to know what we were signing ourselves up for. In a way, it wouldn't have been fair if He hadn't explained it to us. I may be wrong, and, given the veil, I can't know for sure, but I think we had some idea what life would be like before we agreed to experience it first-hand. Given how difficult life is, it's tempting to think that I wouldn't have agreed to it if I had known how hard it would be, but I think I did know, and I agreed to it anyway.  It's hard to say exactly how much we knew about mortality before we signed up for it, but I like to think God let us know what kind of experience we were in for.