What can I give to you?
Eternal Father to make reply,
For all that Thou has given me,
All the days of my life?
Can I offer you my labors,
My strength that comes from you,
Can I give you my endeavors,
My plans my hopes my journey through.
Can I give you my possessions,
To the poor disguised I see,
Clothed in frail humanity,
My Lord, I see in them, Thee.
Can I offer you my body,
as a living sacrifice,
And labor for you sweetly,
To the dawn of my true life.
Let me offer you some songs,
Some poems my heart can sing,
whose inspiration comes from Thy own hand,
You gifted to me, what all I might bring.
I have no natural children,
No Isaac I can bless,
I have only what Thou gave me,
And will give it gladly at Thy request.
Make my offer to you sweet,
Though the giver is so small,
To present my little treasures,
To the sovereign over all.
For even in giving every breath,
Every thought in the thundercloud of my mind to this,
Every consideration of my heart,
Every single gesture, I would
Yet still be remiss.
No reply that we humans can make
Can ever hope to fairly purchase Thee.
And Thou great gentle goodness,
Accepts what we give and sees –
The love with which it is offered,
A whole temple or a single coin of brass –
For it is then in our loving
That the offer then may last.
Even in my smallness, I am so grateful to be,
In relationship with you my Jesus,
And that I may so love and cherish Thee.
Oh my sovereign dearest,
The apple of my eye,
All I have to give Thee,
The everyday or the sublime.
Oh my Jesus who restores me,
Is already Thine, more than mine.
