“You’re all I want, you’re all I’ve ever needed…” is a lyric familiar to those who sung “Draw me Close to You.” This lyric is a common thought in many Christians heads. It’s the idea that God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit is everything a professing follower of Christ truly needs or desires. Even Rich Mullins, affirms this in his song “you’re my one thing.” Maybe because I am paying attention to it more, but this thought of God being the only thing I need seems to becoming more forefront in song, thought, and speech inside church walls. But is this true? Can I really affirm that, in my deepest depression, hottest anger, or emptiest grief, God is all I need?

First, do not misunderstand me, all of Christian hope comes only from God. Why is it I anticipate the day of my death? Why do I welcome the thought of dying like a long lost friend? How can I confidently claim with Paul ‘to die is gain’? It is only through Christ and His resurrection I rest all of my hope. It is truly only in Him that an anchor can be found in the nastiest of storms by providing a promise and issuing a security that only He can provide. It is the assurance of justification by faith through the death of Christ and His subsequent resurrection that I know I am saved. This assurance can only be purchased through His death and resurrection. Ultimately, at some point, everything terminates at the one who created it all. For this reason, when I smell a rose, I enjoy the rose, but He gets the glory for it is Him alone that made the rose and its scent. He is the one who created me to be able to see the rose and the ability to smell its fragrance. So this type of “In God alone” where He gets the glory and all my devotion is absolutely true. But the question I am looking at is this “is life more than just ‘God alone’”?
If He wanted to create us to find fulfillment in Him alone why did He determine that “it is not good for man to be alone”? Certainly, man was not alone. He had the animals God created, the plants, insects, and even God Himself. The one who knows what relationships are better than anyone else was the companion Adam had way back in Genesis. Why would there be a need to create someone who is less than God when Adam already had “God alone”? If having God alone was all Adam truly needed there should have been no reason for Eve. But God determined that this scenario, man in a created world with no companion other than God Himself, was not good. If God so desired He even could have created Adam and Eve as spirit beings unable to enjoy the things that a body could enjoy. So He made them with a spirit so they could know and love God and He created them with a body to enjoy His gifts to them the bountiful creation.
I’ll be the first to admit I do not know the mind of God. I can only go by what I have seen and experienced myself to come to an understanding of this supposed paradox. One of the things I LOVE is seeing someone I care about opening a present I have planned and thought about for a long time with that person in mind. The smile on their face and the excitement that moment brings to them in turns makes me smile and laugh as well. Some people begin shopping for Christmas gifts in July or even August. They are on the lookout half the year for that perfect gift with a single person in mind. Once that gift is bought the excitement and anticipation sometimes makes the waiting for the gift giver unbearable. Maybe a hint is slipped out, or the gift may be given a bit early because even the gift giver is excited to share what they have found for their friend, mother, father, etc.…

God is not different than us in this way. Just reading a few verses shows that God enjoys giving us gifts the same way we enjoy giving gifts.

Mt 7:11 “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

Imagine for a minute a wedding day. After the ceremonies and reception, the husband and wife are finally alone. The husband had spent the whole last year planning, searching and paying for the perfect gift for his bride. The groom would be so excited to see her open this gift he had put so much effort into finding for her. He is beaming as she tears away the paper and opens the box and inside is the most beautiful necklace and flowers she had ever seen. But her face doesn’t show it. His heart sinks. She throws the gifts on the ground discarding them in the dirt and dust. Walking toward her husband she steps on the necklace, breaking it into a million, irreparable pieces. She steps on the flowers breaking the stems and squashing the petals. She looks deeply into his eyes as she draws close to him and says “I only want you alone”. While the sentiment might sound nice that husband would be crushed just like those gifts! He wanted her to enjoy the things he gave her, he wanted to see her beam with delight! But instead, in an act of seeming devotion she crushes what he has so long prepared for her. What is worse is if she were to talk about these gifts as if they were a nuisance or even unwanted as she trashes them with her feet.

See, God loves every one of us and one of the ways He has decided to show us this love is through providing us with gifts. He has given us each other to share life with. When we talk bad about another person, we are trashing the gift God has given us of companionship.

God has given us the beauty of a meadow filled with various flowers. The bees bouncing from petal to petal gathering what will end up as sweet nectar. He created these tireless workers to provide a gift of honey. He made the raindrop not so small it is of no use but not so big it erodes away the ground. Trees provide shade and stability to the ground to prevent further erosion. He has made plants for food to provide us with a variety of flavors. The juiciness of an apple or the tang of an orange are gifts He has given. The ferocity in a lightning bolt demonstrates His awesome power. Just looking around we can see the many gifts He has provided for us. By ignoring these and focusing on “I just need God alone” is to ignore the gifts He has given that demonstrate His love for us.

What do we need in our depression? Each other! We need to talk to one another, and there are those professionals that have made it their life’s work to help those with depression. What about when we are sick, same thing God has created people as a gift to provide the healing society needs. By ignoring these people, we are ignoring the gift God has given to us.

Maybe we don’t need someone else maybe we need something else. When we read the story of Elijah, we see him depressed and ready to die (1 King 19:4). How did God renew Elijah’s spirits? Through sleep and food. We may be tempted to side with Christ and proclaim “men do not live by bread alone but by the very words of God.” But we should never try to live without bread. It is often through these gifts He has given us that bring us joy, comfort, and healing. 

Paul seems to affirm this sentiment throughout his letters to the early churches. Time and again he writes to the churches about the men and women who have come along side him to help him in his ministry. Look at 2 Cor 7:5-6. While in Macedonia Paul felt like he could not catch a break in fact he writes, depending on your translation, “we were harassed at every turn.” But it was through Titus that God comforted him. Yes, God comforts the downcast, but it is through other people He decides to comfort them.
It is okay to enjoy His gift, in fact, He would love for nothing more than for us to enjoy what He has so freely given. Our responsibility is not to worship the things He has given. These gifts are only a conduit that channels our focus up toward Him. If our worship terminates on the gift that is no better than the bride receiving her gift and running out of the room and telling everyone about this fantastic necklace without ever mentioning her husband. This would be very hurtful as the husband did not give the gift to be ignored but so that the love between the two of them would be enriched. Ignoring the gift and worshiping the gift are two extreme and inappropriate responses when understanding what it is God has provided for us. Ultimately all of our worship terminates on Christ, but it is through these gifts that we are able to grasp what kind of love He has for us. We were not made to be alone or placed in a world void of color, smells, or taste. He did not create us without senses because He wanted us to enjoy the things He created and knew that it would not be good for us to live in a world devoid of a taste of His heavenly treasures.

We should not be surprised that the God who created us with flesh would use physical gifts to minister to us. But it is not the gift we worship it is the giver of these gifts, through the gifts He has provided, whom we are able to praise. The gift is only an avenue not the final destination.