Conversations with S. - God, love, freedom, evil, suffering

Well, folks, the other day S. and I were sharing a muffin, sitting outside on a humid Spring day, pondering stuff. As often happens with us, the conversation drifted into the topic of God, the universe, creation...considering such questions as: Is God good? Why do we struggle so much to believe this? Is God really love? What does that love look like? Both of us have had experiences that we've had to dub supernatural, and were discussiong what they could mean. I have chosen, for reasons I like to think are "reasonable" (hence the term:-), to believe the Christian version of these experiences. My friend is not sure that any religious tradition really captures the essence of what she has experienced - but it has grounded her through the years with incontrovertable evidence of the existence of love - personal, light, accepting and unconditional. The truly challenging part came when we tried to reconcile the evil in the world with this idea of a loving omniscient presence. I offered her my take on things - namely, that love requires freedom, so, if love is the foundational spiritual truth, then it necessitates free will. A will fully free to choose to acknowledge, accept and return the divine lovers' love, or to turn away from it. My friend added that if this is the case, then God has chosen to suffer with suffering mankind rather than undo the premise upon which God's essence is founded - love and the freedom it requires. What do you think?