A Christmas Prayer

As I sat down three days ago for some time in the Word, I decided to start with a prayer from the book The Valley of Vision.  This book is a collection of Puritan prayers and devotionals, and as my husband Kelly wrote in the front of the book when he gave it to me as a gift while we were still dating, it truly does “assist me in expressing my adoration to my Savior.” I find that even though on my own I am not able to express myself as eloquently as these Puritans did, my heart feels deeply the words that they wrote, and that I, in turn, pray to God. Though I had put the book aside for a while, I decided to pick right back up where I had left the bookmark. And that was a prayer entitled “The Gift of Gifts.” It is one that I am passing on to you, dear reader.  Can I recommend reading it out loud? Not only is it beautiful; it helps in the understanding of it. May this be our prayer this Christmas season. 

--Amy O'Rear 

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.

Oh 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.