Thank you for this thoughtful response, Alex. So true. I think when we remove the divine law of agency–as you said well– and the beauty of God’s constancy in respecting that law so we can grow, we would come to the conclusion that He is missing or AWOL when He could have been there. Instead, He is very much there, as He was on the shores of Galilee during the storms, in the moment for Saul on the Road to Damascus, and eternally for each of us in the garden and on the cross. If we miss the need for agency–however raw the use or abuse of it is–we can then draw wrong conclusions and think He has betrayed our trust in Him or that He has abandoned us. This is far from true and if we remember Gethsemane, we are reminded that the notion that God doesn’t care or has turned away is not true. The Savior suffered for our every hurt personally, so that distorted view of God absent in suffering or disregarding it, can not hold water. He does work the agonies of life into glories over time (as mentioned by CS Lewis & in the Book of Revelation)–not that the misery and consequences of others’ choices won’t be felt and dealt with by him, but that our suffering for others’ wrong choices as well as for own foibles, will work to ends that are ultimately positive, and only love’s pure joys will remain eternally (as the hymn records.)