The 80's hit song breaks into your head; 'I want you to want me ... I need you to need me ... oh didn't I, didn't I, didn't I see you cryin .... ooohhhh.' So where does this come from? No, not the 80's song and the questions of why it became a hit, that is probably far beyond my reasoning ability. But why do we all have such a deep need to be desirable? Everywhere you go, it seems to be a constant. Everyone wants to be loved. Everyone wants to be wanted ... to be desired ... to be sought after. No matter where in the world you go, no matter what period of human history, no matter what language you speak or don't speak. Everyone wants to be loved. Anyone who says otherwise I imagine is simply lying. And yet, in spite of our numerous and elaborate plots, ploys, schemes and efforts (and I mean boy do we go to great lengths) ... often more times than not, we struggle to fulfill these desires. A wise man long ago once said that God had laid eternity on the hearts of men (Ecc 3:11), and another wise man, a long time after, said that God cares for us (1 Pet 5:7). What if God himself put our desire to be desired, in us? What if God put that desire in us because he cares for us (that is probably the greater mystery - Heb 2:6) and He is the one that wants to meet and fulfill that desire? What if God created that desire in us, as only He can, to be a desire that can only be fulfilled and satisfied by Him? A cosmic divine plot to woo humanity that would be (Deut 32:10-11).
I know ... I know ... a God shaped whole in our hearts and all that jazz. Whatever. I hate the cliché as much as the next guy (maybe more actually) ... I'm simply tellin you like it is: to know that all the ways I try to find fulfillment, meaning, purpose, and even pleasure are ultimately short lived and temporary unless they are rooted in the eternal, in God Himself. To think where this notion of eternity even originated in my mind is a difficult question, it has been there for literally almost as long as I could remember. And despite my efforts I could not quiet it, in fact, over time it simply became stronger ... and I don't mean at 87 on my death bed while I'm staring the questions of the afterlife in the face, but young and in my prime. Why is this? I want to be desired. Oddly enough, God desires me. And in accord, God Himself is supremely desirable, whether I acknowledge so or not. But man is life so much better when I do.