Do you ever ponder what God’s purpose for you might be? God is love, and the purpose of Love is love. We were, each and all, created in the image of God, and the Beloved wants us to walk in the way of Christ Jesus, to incarnate self-giving, compassionate love here and now in our daily lives. At this very moment, the Holy One is working in our hearts from deep within to transform us into the imago dei we were created to be.

When we look into our personal lives, how is God doing? Consider the apostle Paul’s description of the spiritual gift of love in I Corinthians 13:1-7. What would our world look like if we did live into Love with every breath we take? A far cry from what we see around us today, I suspect. The Holy One knows we can’t manage that on our own and imbues us with the gift of Divine Love to focus us in the right direction and opens our eyes to see the opportunities before us. That’s how the Beloved makes good God’s purpose for us (138:9). As we grow into that love day by day, we are led to feed the hungry, offer drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit those in prison (Mt.25:35-36) for a start. As we cooperate with Love’s purpose, the world can begin to change, as unimaginable as that may be.

The good news is just what our psalmist for today knew three millennia ago: “The Lord will make good his purpose for me.” He trusted, along with Job, “that no purpose of [the Lord] can be thwarted” (Job 42: 2). How grateful we are that salvation history testifies that Divine Love is eternal, and the Beloved does not abandon the works of God’s hands.