It is peculiar that so many people reject (or neglect) the Christian view of God and yet know love to be the greatest of all. It was the unique view of God revealed to the church in Jesus that brought us to the point of acknowledging love to be the centre that must not be subordinated to anything. 'God is love' was neither a universal affirmation nor an obvious one. 'God is love' is a specifically Christian affirmation. In Christian theology 'God is love' does not mean that God desires to love, as though needing us to love. That would leave God wanting to love, not love. Love would be between God and us, not God. God would remain the shadowy figure behind God's love of us. That is, love would be external to God in some way. And if we were to continue to affirm that 'God is love', God would then be incomplete without us (to love). This is not the Christian understanding of God. Christianity affirms that God is love, meaning that love is not an add-on to God. God is not the shadowy figure lying behind love. God is love.
I think though, that people know love to be the greatest of all things we are scared of it. Love is something that we want and yet to experience love is actually something we find confronting. To truly love we need first to be loved. And so if as humans we need to know love in order to love then surely God must love us. Yet, to then to comprehend that God not only loves us but is love is truly amazing. For to love is to be open, exposed and totally for the other in which the love is towards. Love though, is as you point out not dependent upon the object/person that is loved as love itself can be rejected and left as other. And so God being Love, God is totally open, exposed and for others, thus is not closed off from us or the world.
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