In The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis argues that God allows pain in our lives not because He loves us less, but because He loves us more than we would wish:
Over a sketch made idly to amuse a child, an artist may not take much trouble: he may be content to let it go even though it is not exactly as he meant it to be. But over the great picture of his life—the work which he loves, though in a different fashion, as intensely as a man love a woman or a mother a child—he will take endless trouble—and would, doubtless, thereby give endless trouble to the picture if it were sentient. One can imagine a sentient picture, after being rubbed and scraped and re-commenced for the 10th time, wishing that it were only a thumb-nail sketch whose making was over in a minute.
As we renew our minds with a growing biblical perspective on the experiences and circumstances of life, we come to see that this life is a time of sowing the seeds of eternity rather than multiplying ephemeral treasures on earth. Such a perspective reduces our anxieties (Matthew 6:25-34), increases our contentment (Philippians 4:11-13, 1 Timothy 6:6-8), and strengthens our trust and hope (Hebrews 6:13-20).
