Does God Need Man?

I posed a question to my eighth grade girls keyboarding class after explaining that liturgy means "the people's work" or "public works." Actually I did not pose it as I question, I said that worship is for man's sake not for God's sake and that God did not need man's worship and for that matter God does not need man. This led to a bevy of explanations on why He did indeed need man, and that if He didn't that in some way they (my students) would feel that there worship and virtuous life was a waste since God didn't care one way or another. I explained that they were getting wants and needs confused. God is very desirous of our love and in fact He, as the Old Testament proclaims, is a "jealous" God. His jealousy does not compel Him to force us to love Him. In that sense His desire of us is out complete and unconditional love. But in our discussions we may have stumbled upon something or perhaps we strolled about the edges in a philosophical sense. In our understanding of being human, we all posses the need to be wanted, and this need goes to the core of our being. In a utilitarian sense of what is purposeful and needful, it means that somehow we "serve" a purpose to another being. My contention that God does not need us is an affront to them, an attack on us being purposeful beings. It is like throwing a ball against a wall, in all cases it bounces back, but in God's case it is swallowed up. God is so mysterious and wonderful, His love so deep and immense, that perhaps we easily mistake His desire for our love as a need. God is complete and nothing can be added to Him, yet He yearns for us. Our love that we give Him is in a sense His love returned back to Him. He creating us says all we need to know about our purposefulness. I cannot begin to described the joy I felt listening to their discourse on God. He has truly blessed me!