Of course, if the perfect watchmaker (i.e. God) makes a perfect watch (i.e. the universe), taking further action would be a paradox.
I think a general knowledge of the Bible shows that God has indeed acted. However, I believe you are implying that God doesn't act unless He sees the need. To me, this is the real question alot of people have. Why does He not intervene now?
Tying this back to the story, that would be my question. Best intentions or mysterious plans we can't possibly understand, either way many of us feel abandoned - as did characters in the story. Free will or otherwise, a clear, unquestionable sign from Him would go a long way to getting people to fix many ills, and knowing that, I wonder if He really does care.
I would think that my homework analogy of the human/god relationship is *far* less strained than the parent/daughter analogy. Parents and their children, for one, are of the same species, and children ultimately grow up to be equal to their parents.
Based on your comments, your interest in Escape Pod, and a general nature, I will assume you to be intelligent and curious. So while you didn't sit in on classes at your high school after graduating, you didn't cease all learning. It's fair to say that you couldn't have learned all the information in all the classes available. Therefore, simply working, living, interacting you have taken action, you have learned about at least some of your studies. Also knowledge is without need, and you never had an inherent, what I believe to be an inherent, responsibility to the knowledge that you learned. These are some reasons why I feel the anaolgy is strained. In my defence the language of the Bible is rife with the similarity of human families to a person's relationship with God. We are refered to as His children. We are to consider ourselves all brothers and sisters. As for the rest of the comment, I'd want to better understand your definition of equal before wading into that debate.
I'm sorry to go back to my analogy, but let me put my feelings this way. My kids have free will, and they are required to do their own homework, I let them make their own mistakes. Nevertheless, I still help them study when they ask, I still teach them things if it seems they don't understand. I could leave them to their own devices, and I know they would muddle through, gradute and go on with their lives, but what kind of parent would I be if I didn't help them when I could.