Shouldn’t God be eradicating grief rather than causing it?

I imagine the human hands of Jesus. I imagine them calloused and dry with a sandpaper-like grit from the severity of his work and the climate. They aren’t delicate, pristine hands. They aren’t manicured or soft. These hands bear witness to the difficulty of a day’s work. They are carpenter’s hands. They are strong and severe, capable and skilled. They are hardened and rough, yet impossibly capable of intricate and delicate craft. They are powerful and gentle, purposeful and loving. They cut and they craft and they mold and they make.

“For the Lord will not reject forever. Although he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.” — Lamentations 3:31-33

I wrestle with the words of this lament. God causes grief? Isn’t God supposed to be loving? Shouldn’t God be eradicating grief rather than causing it?

Then I think again of the human hands of Jesus the carpenter. I think of them crafting and carving the wood. The work is both delicate and severe. Wood has to be cut and planed and carved and shaped and crafted and formed by the hands of the carpenter. Pieces of the wood wind up as scrap on the burn pile… but the wood is becoming more than it was. The carpenter causes grief AND “has compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.” Grief is part of the making. There is loss that leads to gain. It’s not grief for grief’s sake. It is a compassionate causing. It is a purposeful pain that leads to a deeper knowing of wholeness and healing.

Hone me and hew me, O God. Carve me and craft me into the image of LOVE.