Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.

Was God absentmindedly doodling in creation – the way we do, sketching out houses and stick people to amuse ourselves when we are bored? No, the universe shows every sign of having been created on purpose. Did God tell himself he had to create or else he couldn’t be God? No, God was free either to create or not to create. He is sovereign. It was up to him whether to make a universe.

Hannah Whitall Smith

Even to ourselves come afflictions that we cannot understand, and Satan seems so busy in the matter that it is hard to trace the hand of the Lord in it at all. But His hand is in it nevertheless, and He overrules everything. No trial comes except by His permission and for some wise and loving purpose which perhaps only eternity will disclose.