Christmas Alliance 1.14: The Gift of Gifts

This Christmas Alliance post is simply a reprint of material from Chip Stam’s “Worship Quote of the Week, with a very short afterward by me. First, Chip’s preface:

Today’s WORSHIP QUOTE is from Arthur Bennett’s THE VALLEY OF VISION. The author reflects on the wonders of the Incarnation—the gift of gifts—as he gathers in rich biblical language in a prayer of reflection, adoration, and submission. I am particularly blessed by the way he uses the details of the Luke 2 narrative as springboards for personal devotion to the Savior. [I trust that the archaic language found herein for thee a hindrance will not be.]

Now, the meat of the matter:

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,
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.

——Arthur Bennett, editor. VALLEY OF VISION: A COLLECTION OF PURITAN PRAYERS AND DEVOTIONS. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Banner of Truth Trust, 2003 (first published in 1975), p. 28. ISBN 0-85151-821-4.

I’m particularly struck by

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.

If we for a moment forget that Christmas is about that Eternal Son, choosing a stable floor over “saphire-paved courts”—as Frank Houghton put it—we risk losing the sense of genuine wonder, awe that Chrismas inspires.

See more of Chip Stam’s collection of quotations at WQOTW.

Pinned to the BB at The Christmas Alliance HQ, Diane’s Stuff and

Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, The Bullwinkle Blog, and Conservative Cat, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.