329. We can tell what a useful function is from the goal of the creation of the universe. The goal of the creation of the universe is to bring about an angelic heaven; and since an angelic heaven is the goal, so is humanity or the human race, since that is where heaven comes from. It follows, then, that everything that has been created is an intermediate goal, and that the functions are useful in the sequence, on the level, and in the specific way that they relate to humanity, and through humanity to the Lord.
Divine Love and Wisdom #43
43. From the foregoing it can now for the first time be seen that Divine love and wisdom in themselves are substance and form, for they are being and expression itself; and that if they were not such a being and expression as to be substance and form, they would be only a figment of the imagination, which in itself is not anything.