God had a reason to create the world. Creation must affect God in some way.
When I was younger, I feared that the effect of creation on God would dissipate over time. This would require God to create the universe again.
I came to realize that the effect of creation on God will never dissipate because God is outside of time. Time is a feature of creation, so that all creatures within creation are moving in time. God is outside of time, and creation is also timeless if you look at creation from the outside.
God created existence outside of Himself, giving free will or free agency to humans, angels and demons. Even with free will, creation, from the perspective of God, is timeless and is forever in the face of God. Time exists within creation. Looking at creation from the outside, there is no time.
It is like a film reel consisting of many snapshots, with each snapshot recording all dimensions of space for a moment in time. The entire film reel records each moment from the beginning of time to the end of time. These snapshots, the entire universe from the beginning of time to the end of time, would be like one massive timeless cloud always in the face of God.
The effect that creation has on God was always part of God and always will be part of God as creation is always in the Face of God.
A timeless creation, created by a timeless God, would have to provide something which is essential to the essence of God. Creation must provide something to God by which God is completed. God has infinite Righteousness, infinite Power, and infinite Intelligence. There is something else that God has, that is eternally part of God, that is essential to God, but it is only part of God because of creation.
There is only one thing that God must have, and God does have only because of creation as it now exists. That one thing is wisdom.
Without creation God would have no understanding of sorrow, loneliness, or many other emotions. It seems ridiculous to suggest that God might not have this wisdom. It seems ridiculous to suggest that there could be any knowledge or wisdom that God does not possess. Surely, God has all wisdom, but the essentialness of wisdom to God is why creation exists.
Emotions cannot be calculated; they must be experienced. While God may eternally possess the wisdom of the human experience, there must be a human experience. A world of conflict between good and evil must exist, contained within the borders of time for the wisdom gained by creation to be part of God.
We are repulsive to God when we are angry or selfish. When we are contrite or sorrowful, God is not merely with us, God is inside us, within our mind and soul. God feels precisely what we feel. God has felt the sorrow, loneliness, and anxiety of all His children throughout time. Because of this, God has a full understanding of love. God has wisdom that is essential to His essence by sharing the journey of life with billions of His children.
There would have to be suffering if suffering is the whole point of creation.
God did not create the world for us to suffer, but for God to suffer. It was not for us to experience sorrow and loneliness, but for God to experience sorrow and loneliness through us.
Creation is not a test, but a journey through a world of joy and suffering to provide an understanding of what love is. Creation provides God with an understanding of who God is. Our decisions can determine how difficult this journey is, but our redemption to eternal life is not a result of our decisions. God will redeem all His children because creation is not a test.
