God's Greatest Desire

I gave a talk on Sunday and since then some of the things which I spoke about have been swimming around in my head. One of those things has to do with this quote from President Uchtdorf:

“God Himself said we are the reason He created the universe! His work and glory—the purpose for this magnificent universe—is to save and exalt mankind. In other word, the vast expanse of eternity, the glories and mysteries of infinite space and time are all built for the benefit of ordinary mortals like you and me. We have a spark of eternal fire burning within our breast. We have the incomprehensible promise of exaltation—worlds without end—within our grasp. And it is God’s great desire to help us reach it.”

The thing in this quote that I’ve been pondering on is the last part, where it says that God’s great desire is to help us. I think that as mortals we don’t often think of God as a being who has desires. We think of God as this all-powerful, all-knowing, amazing being—which He is—but I think this unconsciously leads us to think that He couldn’t desire anything because He already has it all.

But God does desire things. Yes—He is a god, but He is also a person. His being a god doesn’t erase His desires, it merely perfects them. And above all the things in the world which He could desire and want one of the things which He desires most of all is for us to return to Him.

Think of it! God has planets and stars. He controls the elements. He has the power to walk on water, turn water to wine, heal the blind, and raise the dead. He could obtain almost anything which we in our worldly mortal state desire—things, pleasure, fame, fortune, wealth, popularity, the perfect body, the perfect house, the perfect car, the perfect job—He has the power to obtain any and all of these things at the tip of His finger. And yet, what He desires above all of these things is, essentially, us. You and me.

How ironic it is, then, that this is one of the only things He can’t have with a wave of His hand. Because Heavenly Father loves us so much He gave us the gift of choice and accountability. He knew that the only way we could be like Him, the only way we could obtain the level of happiness which He has, would be to let us come to this earth and to mess-up, to make bad decisions, and to jeopardize ever being able to return to Him again. In a sense, when Heavenly Father gave us choice and accountability He also gave up the only sure way that He could have what He most ardently desires—our safe return to Him.

It is only us—the powerless—who have the ability to give God—the most powerful—what He desires most. We so often focus on how the bad choices we make will affect our lives and happiness. How often do we pause and think about how the bad choices we make will affect God’s life and happiness? How do our actions cause Him to worry that we will deprive Him of that sweet, perfect, selfless, god-inspired desire He has of having us return to Him? A desire which, in all actuality, benefits us countless times more than it does Him?

Would it hurt to spend a little more time in our daily lives putting off our own intents and desires and thinking instead of God’s? Would it hurt to, instead of thinking about what we can do to make ourselves happy, think of what we can do to make Him happy? The best part about doing so is that we benefit more than He does.

God loves us in such a perfect manner that above almost all other things, He desires us to return to Him. That is the reason for everything—for the galaxies that fill the skies down to the grains of sand that fill the earth. God loves us—there’s no denying that. Let us better show our love for Him by doing our best to return to Him.