You can make a point that there was some value in the son experiencing what it actually meant to be free from his father. But a scenario like that is just a tiny piece of the big problem of suffering, and whatever justification we can find for that situation won't be applicable to when, say, a guy rapes his daughter or soldiers burn villages, or disease for that matter.
Respectfully, I believe you're being too dismissive here. I grant you that the suffering of the prodigal son is unworthy in comparison to soldiers burning a village, rape, disease etc.., but the issue remains that apart from God/empathy, bad things happen. We're seeing horrifying events happen where God is not, Light is not, where darkness prevails.
It reminds me of how people use the story about Job to draw out some lesson about God, meaning, free will, suffering and so forth. Notice how it's all about Job and what happened to him. What about his wife and children, who were killed because God and the devil were duking it out?
I must say that the lesson from Job is not about free will. I don't see that lesson anywhere in scripture, but of course that would depend upon what free will is meant to denote or imply.
No, I believe the lesson is that there are some who project a servitude towards God based upon a carnal vanity (Satan in this case), and there are those who project a servitude towards God based upon trust (Job). It's really a discerning of what is true worship and what is merely patronizing. As for what happened to his family, his wife did not die. She represents Satan goading Job to curse God. As for the children, sure it looks bad because it's supposed to. What was God supposed to do, just allow Satan to walk all over Him? Let's remember here that God, if He is indeed God, made everything and is therefore able to remake anything. In fact the faith of Abraham was that he went ahead and proceeded to kill his own beloved son knowing that since God gave him his son in the first place, so also could God could bring him back to life.
But for most people, that whole manifestation was in vain. People just don't know about it, or don't believe it, or believe some incorrect version of it. Again I really can't see a reason why God didn't make himself or his will abundantly clear to everybody, if that's in fact what he wants.
Your statement that for most people the manifestation is in vain because they don't know about it or don't understand it, or for whatever reason they don't get it, is actually explained in scripture. There's the parable of the sower for example. However it is clear that God did not make Himself abundantly clear because He reveals Himself according to His own purpose which implies that it has to be on His terms and is for a good reason. Again trust is a vital criteria as opposed to patronization, and He is sifting and molding through a manifold of methods.
I don't have to make my children suffer for them to be grateful to me.
Neither does God. I mean to say that God did not make the prodigal son suffer, it was circumstantial. Nonetheless he returned more thankful than before.
And besides, is that thankfulness really worth literally billions of people dead, murdered, sick, heartbroken - or even in hell?
Well that depends upon whether you think it was for the sake of God's vanity that he seeks thankfulness, or that because people who are unthankful eventually turn vain, which results in the horrific events of a dog eat dog world. Let's remember that there is also a hope of a resurrection where upon this world will be only a bad dream.
From reading your posts, I can surmise that you, as I have also done, as many do, ponder why anyone would believe in a God that has created a world with such horrific events. I say to you, that we are unthankful to God because without His Spirit of empathy bequeathed to us, we would not even care to ponder the question. God is Love, and without Love, we would not even care that we didn't have Love.
I hope you know that it seems easier to not believe in God at all. Somewhere in the subconscious, I think we are afraid because we fear that someday we may find ourselves despising His Word and loathe ourselves. We don't want to fail Him. In a sense, we are all Jobs and it is Satan telling us to curse God for the bad things that happen in this world. Or better yet, let's not even believe in God as existing as a Person. But if that is the case, how does that change any of the horrific events? It doesn't, which means we are already despising God in the first place, since we're using the pain that comes with Love, as a reason to say He doesn't exist.