Of course God is perfect, but why should that exclude need? Need is part of love. And God is love.

Even the need to give, to share, to create, is just that…a need. True need is a longing, an openness, a sacred thing. And all things sacred have their root in God don’t they : )?

It isn’t that people think that need is a horrible thing. But need does imply that something is lacking. God can’t be lacking in anything, can’t need because God is perfect. He is all fullness.

You are right that our need for God is a lovely thing. And it is true that God wants us to need Him, wants to fulfill our needs. Still that is because we are imperfect, created beings. But to say that God is needy is to misunderstand His nature. Really it denies His divinity. It denies that He is perfect and lacking in nothing and blurs the distinction between Creator and creature.

One thing did disturb in some of the comments though… this judgment that God couldnt possibly need, as if need is some horrible thing. Personally, i think thats nonsense, and that need is a sacred thing. I love that God created us to need Him. And i love that perhaps He…needed to : )

This may make less sense than it would have when the Bible was written, as we have very few modern monarchies that embody this.

When the children of a King are grown it is still considered their very adult duty to obey, love, honor and be devoted to their father, as their monarch, their liege lord. While they remain within his family and enjoy the privilege of adoption and sonship and as such are members of the family of God, they are also his subjects. He is still their King.

We talk, as the Bible talks, of believers coming into the family of God, but one must not forget that there is also a kingdom of God and that God’s family grows up to participate in the rule and advancement of God’s kingdom.

Even Jesus, God’s firstborn, who being in the form of God still humbled himself and was obedient to his father even to the point of death on the cross. Phil. 2:5-10

Children in regular families do move on in adulthood to devotion to things outside of the family.

Children of kings grow up to offer their father service, devotion, love and obedience to a greater extent than they did as children.

In love God created out of nothingness. There is no higher calling than to love. It is not that we are good and are then arbitrarily rewarded for it. We love (are “good”) and by doing so open ourselves to the greatest of possibilities, the call of God.

If you find yourself wondering if God is a vast megalomaniac (as I once did), consider that he sent his Son (one person of the Holy Trinity) to be born in a manger to poor simple people in a contentious backwater of the Roman Empire. According to scripture, his family wasn’t sure what to do with him. His own people misunderstood him and rejected him. He was put to death in a shameful way, absolute “Son of Man” until his very death. What came to mark his true first followers was freedom and faith, and love.

All of this is best understood over time, trying to live a Christian life, studying and reflecting on scripture, and imitating Christ, even in the poorest of imitations – perhaps even, at first, as just a bad actor.

Many might judge an adult child whose life revolved (emotionally – not including cases such as physically caring for chronically ill relatives) around their parent as having missed out on a significant part of life.

(I know others have offered alternative answers to the question that don’t have this problem, but I found the marriage/family line of thought interesting and wanted to focus my comments on it.)

Love is creation. I would think it’s a natural extension. To love is to create, multiply, reproduce that which is good. We are all a little piece of God, a little piece of pure love. By honoring and worshiping God we honor and worship all that is good.

God IS love. Love is meaningless without expression in relationship.