Hi everyone,
As we approach the Christmas holiday, I would like to repost what I think is one of the most inspiring prayers regarding Christmas I have ever read. This comes from our spiritual ancestors, the Puritans, and this comes from the book “Valley of Vision”
The Gift of Gifts
“O SOURCE OF ALL GOOD,
What shall I render 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 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 lifted 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.”
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Praise God indeed for the blessed Incarnation where Deity took on humanity and came into the world under the most humble circumstances, that we may be redeemed.
Merry Christmas to all!
Stan
