Of all the silly notions that run rampant in our thoughtless, sentimental times, this one may well take the cake. That’s the “Boy howdy is this a silly idea” cake mind you. It is beautifully true and truly beautiful that He does indeed love us. He delights to be in relationship with us. All of which is rather a long way from He needs us lest He be lonely. Let me suggest two reasons, one a bit ethereal and abstract, the other more obvious.
God is all sufficient. That, of course, is not language we typically use. It’s a fancy way of saying He not only doesn’t need anything, but He can’t need anything. That is, God did not work hard to get Himself to the place where all His needs are met. No, when there was God and nothing else He was already without any needs. It’s not as though He had some odd sense of dis-ease, pondered it for a while and then determined to make man, to see if that would scratch His itch. He had no itch, and never will have an itch. God did not create man to fill an empty place in Him but to make known His absolute fullness.
Second, not only was God not alone prior to the creation but God’s essence is “not aloneness.” That God is trinitarian is not accidental. Please don’t misunderstand. By “not accidental” I don’t mean that it happened on purpose. In fact, it didn’t happen, because it has always been. What I mean by “not accidental” is that the tri-unity of God is essential to what He is. If I weighted forty pounds less and were three inches taller I would not have changed my essential being. If my hair were thick and the hue of a red, red rose, I’d still be me. God’s trinitarian nature isn’t like that. Make Him one being in three roles and He would be something and someone completely different from what and who He is.
Which is why there was no loneliness prior to the creation. There was no aloneness. God the Father enjoyed perfect, infinite union with the Son and the Spirit. The Son enjoyed perfect, infinite union with the Father and the Spirit. The Spirit enjoyed perfect, infinite union with the Father and the Son. No person of the Trinity could ever say of another, “I feel like I just don’t know you.” Nor could any person of the Trinity experience a moment of loneliness.
No, God has never been lonely. His motive for creating the world, and mankind is the same as His ultimate motive for all that He does, to make manifest His own glory. That is done in part in and through His genuine love for us, the sacrifice Jesus made to restore our relationship with Him. He is not in the least aloof and indifferent toward us. Neither, however, has He ever sat by His phone waiting for us to call.