Tenderness

From More Precious Than Silver.  J.E. Tada

The Father is tender beyond description. He not only makes His compassion known; He rises to offer His love and mercy. He not only chooses  but longs to be gracious to you. That is, He desires, yearns, and even aches to show you the abundance of His care and compassion.

I think that a lot of us, as new "young" Christians do not get told, nor realize, how loving the Father is. After all, He is connected to the Son and the Spirit...how could He not be loving? 
Yes....there are many stories in the OT about His commands to make nations move so that Israel can settle in His chosen spot for them. This was, however, an act of protection. He likely knew that they would not pick to live with and worship the true King, and would instead provide a huge link for weaknesses through the worship of their false gods. 
The nation did not always listen...and there are many, many times in which the nation fell completely from His love, and picked the deaf, blind, and certainly not loving, bits of stone, wood and gold to love and worship. 
If though, if! you really read the OT, you will see how God is loving. There are so many amazing passages speaking of His love towards those who are faithful. His acts of forgiveness in a time without a Savior. 

Faith is what is needed. Faith that God will allow things to happen, but that it is ok that they happen, because He is right here, lending us the power that created the heaven and the earth. 

I realized the other day that the forefathers of faith saw God. Not all of Him, but saw God. Abraham saw Him (or they seem to say) at a lunch in the desert before Sarah had a child...I believe that He even wanted to build each of the men a tent, but I cannot be sure. If he did want to do this, (as Timothy Keller explains in his book 'Jesus---The King') he was making separate tents, which gives the idea of the tabernacle with its Holy of Holies.
Jacob is told to have wrestled with God. 
Moses out and out demanded to "see" God, so God hid him in the cleft of a rock, covered him when He passed by, but Moses did see God. 
With the case of Moses, the people could not look at him, and he kept his face covered for some time, as the glory of God shining on his face was too much to bear. 
I am not aware of any other stories off the top of my head...but it was faith, I believe, that allowed these men to see Him. They were not perfect by any means...but righteousness was accorded, I think, by faith, as it says about Abraham in the NT. 
 
We are horrible. And horrible things that happen to us are really probably fair....likely not even enough for all the sins that we commit, and the sins that those in the past generations fall forward. Really, speaking as one in a chronic illness condition, it is incredible we aren't all one legged, one armed, blind and deaf from all the sins in the world. God protects us from many sins I have read from different authors, and I think that is true. He really does care a great deal for us. We are worth more than many sparrows, as the Word tells us...and He loves all His creation. Even in its broken state. I am sure He can hardly wait to fix it beyond what it ever was, yet is waiting for the last believer to believe.