Jonah 4

Having lost much, Job declared -

"...the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." (Old Testament | Job 1:21)

In the eternal scheme of things, or the "plan", I believe the Lord does so, to help us learn and change our perspectives -

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Old Testament | Isaiah 55:8 - 9)

But yet, He wants us to come to learn and understand His ways and His thoughts. I see this with Jonah. Maybe because of pride or inherent dislike for assyrians or whatever, as the people of Ninevah began to repent -

"Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
6 And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd." (Old Testament | Jonah 4:5 - 6)

But as the Lord gave, He also took away as -

"...God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die..." (Old Testament | Jonah 4:7 - 8)

Jonah was angry that the Lord would allow the beneficial and innocent gourd to be destroyed. Why would the Lord do that. The Lord used this happening to change the heart of Jonah as He explains -

"Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?" (Old Testament | Jonah 4:10 - 11)

...suggesting, how can you have pity on a gourd but not a city full of God's children. The writer does not continue any further or reveals what Jonah learned from this experience, but we can.

We can learn from Jonah that there is a plan and God loves all His children.