Gift of Gifts

O source of all good,
Of what shall I render to Thee for the gift of gifts,
    Thine own dear Son, begotten, not created,
    My Redeemer, proxy, surety, substitute,
    His self-emptying incomprehensible,
    His infinity of love beyond the heart’s grasp.
Herein is wonder of wonders:
    He came below to raise me above
    He was born like me that I might become like Him.
Herein is love;
    when I cannot rise to Him He draws near on wings of grace,
      to raise me to Himself.
Herein is power;
    when Deity and humanity were infinitely apart
    He united them in indissoluble unity, the uncreated and the created.
Herein is wisdom;
    when I was undone, with no will to return to Him,
     and no intellect to devise recovery,
    He came, God-incarnate, to save me to the uttermost
      as man to die my death,
          to shed satisfying blood on my behalf,
          to work out a perfect righteousness for me.
O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds
    and enlarge my mind;
let me hear good tidings of great joy,
    and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore,
    my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose,
    my eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father;
place me with ox, ass, camel, goat,
    to look with them upon my Redeemer's face,
    and in Him account myself delivered from sin;
let me with Simeon clasp the new-born Child to my heart,
    embrace Him with undying faith,
    exulting that He is mine and I am His,
in Him Thou hast given me so much that heaven can give no more. 

-Valley of Vision, Arthur Bennet, Editor,
Banner of Truth Trust, 1975