Designed With a Need

When a newborn, my son’s wants matched his needs. He required nutrients, sleep, a regulated body temperature, clean diapers, and loving touches in order to thrive. A year-and-a half later, Pickle, like most toddlers, still thinks that his wants and needs are synonymous. I’m working on teaching him to think otherwise.

It’s been more than three decades since my stint as a swaddled infant, but times still exist when I too confuse my wants and needs. Sometimes I think that I need my husband to lavish me with compliments for me to feel loved. Frequently I think I need appliances and gadgets that will make homemaking easier. And, there is always a new dress that is needed in my closet.

Earlier this week, I was reminded about a genuine need. A need that is not mine alone. While walking my Dachshund, I deposited a trash bag into a dumpster. There, written in candy apple red paint, were the words “We all need Jesus.”

The truth of those words grabbed my heart faster than the annoyance of noticing graffiti in my neighborhood.

Everyone on this planet shares a need. The need for unconditional love…for acceptance…for forgiveness….For. A. Savior. This need can be denied as easily as a young woman fighting an eating disorder can deny her need for food, but denial cannot change reality.

We need Jesus. We need the sustenance of his unfailing love. We need the rest that comes from a security only he can provide. We need his grace to cleanse our sins. We need Jesus, and nothing in ourselves, in another person, or of this world can substitute for what can only be obtained from a relationship with the King of Kings. There is no substitute. We need Jesus.

There will come a day when my children will not depend on me and The Professor for their survival. They will get jobs, earn money, and grow families of their own. I pray that they will always want me and their daddy in their lives, but unless something unthinkable happens to their physical and mental faculties, they won’t need us. In fact, it is God’s design that they won’t need us.

But I…I will always need my Jesus. And that too, is by design.

But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-7