The Gift of Gifts

O SOURCE OF ALL GOOD,

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,
   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 form sin;
   let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child
      to my heart,
   embrace him with undying faith,
   exulting that the is mine and I am his.
In him thou hast given me so much
      that heaven can give no more.
                                  (from The Valley of Vision)