God works through the empty and painful times to bring about Christ-likeness and goodness in us.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:1-2, ESV).
And so, God separates light from darkness, water from water, Earth from Seas. Notably, He creates an expanse and names it Heaven, and places waters above it and below it. He creates space. Though we don’t understand the exact nature of the interaction of these three spaces, we know that beings have moved between them throughout history.
We know God fills and empties spaces according to the goodness of His will — and that the filling and emptying of these spaces is often a painful process. This is true of Mary’s womb and Jesus’s grave. We know Jesus’s birth and resurrection are wonderful events, but the occasion of his entrance into and exit from Earth were excruciating events for Him and the people around Him. Jesus’s movement into and exit from Mary’s womb caused her pain, and Jesus’s movement through Jerusalem carrying His cross culminated in His spirit leaving his body, and this caused a great deal of pain in the crowd viewing his execution.
Pain and goodness function together in life. They flow in and out of each other, and this is one of the great mysteries in life. If you are feeling empty, in pain, or both, know that the Lord has not withdrawn His love for you. He is moving you through something you cannot understand yet.