(Luke 15:20)                                                 

 

In the distant land of famine,

Craving with
the swine to feed;

Oh, how bitter that awakening

To my sin, and
shame, and need!

Dark and dreary all around me,

Now no more by
sin beguiled;

I would go and seek my Father,

Be a bondsman,
not a child.

 

Yet a great way off He saw,

Ran to kiss me
as I came;

As I was my Father loved me,

Loved me in my
sins and shame.

Then in bitter grief I told Him

Of the evil I
had done—

Sinned in scorn of Him, my
Father,

Was not meet
to be His son.

 

But I know not if He listened,

For He spake
not of my sin—

He within His house would have
me,

Make me meet
to enter in;

From the riches of His glory

Brought His
costliest raiment forth,

Brought the ring that sealed His
purpose,

Shoes to tread
His golden courts.

 

Put them on me—robes of glory,

Spotless as
the heavens above;

Not to meet my thoughts
of fitness

But His
wondrous thoughts of love.

Then within His home He led me,

Brought me
where the feast was spread,

Made me eat with Him, my Father,

I, who begged
for bondsman’s bread!

 

Not a suppliant at His gateway,

But a son
within His home;

To the love, the joy, the
singing,

To the glory I
am come.

Gathered round that wondrous
temple,

Filled with
awe His angels see

Glory lighting up the Holiest,

In that glory
Him and me.

 

This the ransomed sinner’s
story,

All the
Father’s heart made known—

All His grace to me the sinner,

Told by
judgment on His Son—

Told by Him from depths of
anguish,

All the
Father’s love for me,

By the curse, the cross, the
darkness,

Measuring what
that love must be.

 

(Abridged from
Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others, Vol. 1.)