Our Grandfather in Heaven

In his book, The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis has this to say about our concept of love.

By the goodness of God we mean nowadays almost exclusively His lovingness; and in this we may be right. And by Love, in this context, most of us mean kindness- the desire to see others than the self happy; not happy in this way or in that, but just happy. What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, ‘What does it matter so long as they are contented?’ We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven - a senile benevolence who, as they say, liked to see young people enjoying themselves’, and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, ‘a good time was had by all’. . . . I should very much like to live in a universe which was governed on such lines. But since it is abundantly clear that I don’t, and since I have reason to believe, nevertheless, that God is Love, I conclude that my conception of love needs correction. (pp.31-32)

True love is when a parent teaches their child in such a way that the child learns to live a productive and contented life in this world. A parent who loves their child disciplines the child in the hope that they will learn to be self-disciplined. The parent gives the child good food and encourages an appetite for that food. The parent seeks the health, strength, happiness, and self-discipline of the child.