I love you. I need you.

“I love you.  I need you.”

How often do we say these words to the people we care about? 

It’s easy sometimes to take people for granted.  To let our relationships with them just kind of drift apart.  In our marriages.  In our families.  In our friendships.

All because we forget to let people know how much they mean to us.

When Moses and the people of Israel were finally about to set out from Mount Sinai to go to the promised land, his brother-in-law Hobab, who had been staying with  them, planned to go back to his own land. 

But Moses said,

We are setting out for the place about which the LORD said, ‘I will give it to you.’

Come with us and we will treat you well, for the LORD has promised good things to Israel. (Numbers 10:29)

But Hobab replied,

No, I will not go; I am going back to my own land and my own people. (30)

Moses could have given up at that point, but he didn’t. 

Instead, he said,

Please do not leave us. You know where we should camp in the desert, and you can be our eyes. 

If you come with us, we will share with you whatever good things the LORD gives us.” (31-32)

And in just those few words, Moses conveyed just how much he loved Hobab and needed him, and so Hobab joined them.

How about you? 

Are there relationships that you’re letting kind of drift?  Do you let the people you love know just how much you really love them and need them? 

Let’s not take our relationships for granted. 

Instead, let us make sure they know just how much they mean to us. 

All it takes is two simple phrases:

“I love you.”

“I need you.”