Why the Suffering

It was asked at my Genesis bible study why God created viruses and bacteria. If everything was good, how could they be. 
My own mother answered that they were not bad then. We are the ones who wrecked creation. 
The whole world groans, the earth rumbles and shudders, the hurricanes and tornadoes scream in agony. The animals cry in pain when caught by predators, the latter dies at the hands of its own kind. Man struggles all his days with work and hardships, illness and disaster. 
Perhaps all the bacteria and viruses were once as symbiotic as the ones in our own gut, leading our body to function perfectly. Then, with one godhood moment, we put a stop to their working in perfect harmony to begin perfect discord. 
Autoimmune diseases are almost always considered to be linked to a virus. Juvenile diabetes is almost always contracted after a viral illness. A pediatric RN I work with said that Christmas time was always the "season for juvenile diabetes patients to come in. They had all had the stress and excitement of Christmas, had had some illness followed by all the candies of the season. We spent weeks with ketoacidotic children." 
Someday the virus may be pinned down, even with viral treatment. Or they will find that such and such bacteria added to the gut, skin or whatever helps the diseases to 've stopped. 
The world is a disaster place. Yet why doesn't God just stop the earth now? Zap the would be Christians that are to come into existence, stop the suffering now. 
I don't know. Perhaps it is so we will remember what it is like without perfection in the 1,000 year reign. Admit it, suffering is hard to forget, regardless of years past, counseling done. It still haunts.
He knows our suffering. The Lazarus story always sits much more solidly in my mind now, being ill, than it did before. Because, while He had all the power in the universe at His command, the ability to raise a man from death, He wept. He wept tears over a beloved one, even with the power to save him. How much more does He mourn for us, when we are struggling with terrible nausea and pain from RA, nausea from chemo, desperation of a broken marriage, the child announcing homosexuality, the husband who is hooked on pornography. 
He is our ambassador, the permanent priest for us. If He mourned for Lazarus, I am sure He mourns for us today. 
Lazarus was left to die. Remember Christ did not leave for a few days after getting the news, and left only when He knew Lazarus had died. 
Lazarus had to suffer death for the glory of God. And that can be off putting for some people. "I have to be miserable for the glory of God?!"
But it is so much more than that. Yes, these things can be for the glory of God, because of how we handle them. Do we continue to hold onto Him? This is not easy. It is in our nature to groan louder than the earth when bad times fall upon us. We just want to be "happy". And yet...it was not God who set us here to suffer, it is our own godhood, thousands of years ago, when the fruit of sin glowed neon before woman's eyes.
Happiness is fake here on earth;  the neon sin of today.We think this is living----that and the perfect husband, children, church, house, job, the list astronomical. We expect everyone else to do and have these things. I myself ache for the children, home and work, to be who I was a little over two years ago. I know several women aching for children, dealing with infertility or stillborns. Life that seemed "perfect" crumples with little to no warning. "Life" destroyed by our reasoning.
The only lasting happiness is God. He is the one that provides true rest, peace, joy, laughter. He does not crumple within a moment's notice----God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Read the old testament. While there are the harsh laws to help protect the people, there are so many outpourings of love. 
So while we face the harshest of sin's curse, we must not wriggle free from the yoke. The path is much smoother with that broken leg of sin's curse of the world when yoked to Him. We can go it alone, sure. That path is only full of falling boulders, poisonous snakes, rotten logs. We will only be completely miserable, wishing we had never been born, completely without hope. But sure, we can go it alone, even if that is the worst choice ever made. 
No. Hang onto the yoke, keep close as a chick does its mother. We are speaking of the perfect parent---and while I think my parents are outstanding, God is still the perfect parent. He will help us deal with any trial, much like my mother helped proof read paper for the silly typos I automatically fixed while reading it. He says He will never forsake or leave us...and God does not break His word. After all, His Words spoken at creation snapped everything into existence. It seems highly unlikely if He says we are worth more than any sparrow that He did not mean it when you think of His Words making all we see today.  You will never need walk alone, sit alone, or lay paralyzed in bed alone. He holds you in His arms as the perfect parent, fixing what needs fixed, whether that means hardships or ceasing them with miracles.---still while holding you in His arms with the deepest love that can be.