I recently heard someone say that one of the most important truths so essential to Christianity itself is simply this, God does not need you. God does not need you and yet you are here. God in His absolute capacity to accomplish anything simply by the act of His willing it and who is not contingent or dependent upon anything has created us. At every moment we are being loved into existence by God Himself. God does not need us, but yet He has made us.
But what is love? Is it a feeling or fleeting emotion? Do we really love a candy bar or a new piece of clothing or TV show? St. Thomas Aquinas says that "love is to will the good of the other as other." Not to wish somebody else to succeed at something in the hopes that we can grab onto the coat tails of that success for our own sakes. Not to wish somebody well in the hopes of somehow manipulating the situation for our betterment. Love is the complete, freely given gift of self for the sake of the other.
God loves us not because we have somehow merited it but simply because He has deigned for us to exist. He loves us into existence simply so that we might have life and have it to the fullest. St. Augustine says that "we are good insofar as we exist." It is simply good to be, not relying on what we can or have done.
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