The WANT of God

by Paula McBride

The aging missionary sat before me in his wheelchair, though his body was weak and his mind skipped circuits every once in a while, his face was radiant with remembered accounts of his service in the Belgian Congo. I was enthralled as he told of ongoing battles to save his home from driver ants or termites. He told of preparing for the one day a year tall grasses could be burned off. Another story told of the day his middle daughter was born. Her nurse was delayed because a cobra blocked her path. On another trip to the hospital, his car hit a cow and stalled on top of it. In addition to getting the car on the road again, the owner had to be found and paid. Very exciting was an evacuation to Uganda due to the Simba rebellion. There were military checkpoints that were concerning the refugees, but God miraculously had them follow curious Volkswagen tire tracks that led them to safety without encountering a single checkpoint. These stories entertained me, but one story took hold in my heart. As Al Miller spoke of ministering to the people in their language, he recounted that they had no word for love. The closest word that translated is the word “want”.

In a gloriously resonant voice, Al began to quote John 3:16 in English, substituting the word “want” for the word familiar to us. “For God so WANTED the world,” he intoned, “that He gave His only begotten Son.” I was transported as we discussed the nuance of a love that wants us. God wants us! God wants me! How casual I become toward the love of God because the term is so familiar. May it not be so!

How do we know God wants us? The closest I come to relating to this want is in considering my son and daughter. I want them because they are part of me. Part of my image is in them. I want them and I love them. In the same way, we are created in God’s image and His Spirit lives in us. We are wanted by creation, even though we didn’t want Him. Look what happens if we substitute ‘want’ for love in I John 4:10: “This is want: not that we wanted God, but that He WANTED us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

God wants us when we don’t want Him, and we don’t deserve Him. Let’s substitute want for love in Ephesians 2:4- 5: “But because of His great WANT for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.”

In spite of our rejection of God’s great want, nothing can separate us from it--not death, life, angels, demons, height, depth, nor anything else in all creation. Nothing can separate us from the WANT of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

If hearing of God’s love has become commonplace to you, or if you are unmoved by reflecting on the greatest attribute of our Father, please take to heart this little missionary story. A primitive tribe that lacks the word for love in their language has opened up for us a new dimension. God wants us. It’s that simple.