Human love is a mixture of gift and need, and it seems our need is predominant. We try to be like God, increasing our gift-love, but we will always have needs.
We rely on need-love, but God does not. Through Need-love, we realize our dependence upon God. Dependence is not a bad thing. It allows us to come close to God, asking Him to help us along each step of the way. God creates us to need community of others and to need Him. It's important to reflect on why it's necessary. It keeps us accountable, gives us purpose in encouraging others, etc. Charity involves giving-- are we as God's creations able to graciously accept His gifts?
Through practicing gift-love, we see God, just as we see things by His light. We "do" gift-love whenever we love one another without the necessity of receiving anything in return. Sometimes need-love is a result of gift-love, but it seems like this shouldn't be expected. Lewis mentions clothing the naked and feeding the hungry. Yet oftentimes with gift-love, we love because have the desire. Something sparks our interest or brings us happiness. This isn't so with God's gift-love. He doesn't need one thing from us or even because it brings Him something in the long run. God loves because He is love. We are made to need love. If we didn't need love, we wouldn't need God.So need is good-- it shows our humanity.
"In God there is no hunger that needs to be filled, only plenteousness that desires to give" (The Four Loves, 126). Lewis goes on to talk about how God creates us even though we "take advantage of Him". No matter what, He will keep on giving to us through gift-love. We might go right on needing from Him, but it's only part of our humanity.
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