The Gift of Gifts

by Arthur Bennett (ed.)

O Source of all good,
What shall I render to thee for the gift of gifts,
  thine one dear Son, begotten, not created,
  my redeemer, proxy, surety, substitute,
  his self-emptying incomprehensible,
  his infinity of live beyond the heart's grasp.
Herein is wonder of wonders:
  he came below to raise me above,
  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 uncreate 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.