I dunno that time is cruel. It just is -- it's one of the rules of this particular game, dontcha think?
Put another way: if my daughter was able to ride her bike the first time she hopped on, she wouldn't have experienced the triumph & pleasure of mastering it.
If we didn't experience the sensation of being separate from God, we wouldn't have the exquisite joy of rediscovering that the separation is an illusion.