This God’s love is a redemptive love; a patient, kind love that never gives up (I Corinthians 13). This Father is a shepherd who, as Jesus taught, does not give up seeking his beloved, wayward sheep, but looks for it until he finds it (Luke 15:4). His covenant with creation will not allow him to abandon it to its own darkness, but commits him to redeeming it in its entirety.
The love of God in the New Testament, as in the Old, is perfectly compatible with divine wrath and punishment (Heb 12:7-11). However, such punishment is always a means to an end, and such wrath is never the last word. The last word is always grace.
— Gregory MacDonald, The Evangelical Universalist, p. 103