Wishing for less love?


I was greatly interested in a passage in chapter 3, where Lewis talked about pain as a way to refine us, like an artist refines and polishes a work of art.

"But over the great picture of his life--the work which he loves, though in a different fashion, as intensely as a man loves a woman or a mother a child--he will take endless trouble--and would, doubtless, thereby give endless trouble to the picture if it were sentient. One can imagine a sentient picture, after being rubbed and scraped and recommenced for the tenth time, wishing that it were only a thumbnail sketch whose making was over in a minute. In the same way, it is natural for us to wish that God had designed for us a less glorious and less arduous destiny; but then we are wishing not for more love but for less."

I couldn't help but remember that old phrase 'you only hurt the ones you love.' So God loves us so much that He has to cause us some pain? That by wishing to be just left alone and not bothered so much with pain we are asking God to ignore us and not love us as much?
Nietzsche says that "Adversity breeds character (badly paraphrased, very sorry)."
So is God refining our character through this process of pain? The only way we can be all we are meant to be is by overcoming the daily emotional and physical bruises and wounds. That this is the way God shows us His love by presenting us with the pain and then helping us navigate through it.
I found this a very interesting idea and had never really thought about it like that before. Nor have I seen it put in those words. I'm very interested in everyone else's take on this passage.