Part of the answer has been answered above, but regarding why I think God is loving:

I would say that He takes care of us. The air that you and I breathe, if we were to pay for it... you get the point. That makes us live. The food that we eat, the water, the weather. If God had to bring the sun closer to the earth, we would all die. Same if there was no sun at all.

So God created all this environment for us to feel good. The rest is only a test. Anything other than that, only God knows. It happens for reasons beyond our understanding.