IT IS A THING MOST WONDERFUL[1]
The redemption story sometimes seems incomprehensible. Why would a perfect, invincible God choose to die a gruesome death, clothed in frail flesh, especially for people who did not love him? This is the beauty and wonder of the work of Christ. “Oh, light the flame within my heart, and I will love thee more and more!”[2]
It is a thing most wonderful,
Almost too wonderful to be,
That God’s own Son should come from heaven,
And die to save a child like me.
1 Corinthians 1:26-30 NRSV
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
And yet I know that it is true:
He chose a poor and humble lot,
And wept and toiled and mourned and died
For love of those who loved him not.
1 John 4:10, 19 NRSV
In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins . . . We love because he first loved us.
I cannot tell how he could love
A child so weak and full of sin;
His love must be most wonderful
If he could die my love to win.
Thus, taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to the corruption of death, He surrendered His body to death instead of all, and offered it to the Father. This He did out of sheer love for us, so that in His death all might die, and the law of death thereby be abolished because, having fulfilled in His body that for which it was appointed, it was thereafter voided of its power for men. This He did that He might turn again to incorruption men who had burned back to corruption and make them alive through death by the appropriation of His body and by the grace of His resurrection. Thus, He would make death to disappear from them as utterly as straw from fire.[3]
I sometimes think about the cross,
And shut my eyes, and try to see
The cruel nails and crown of thorns,
And Jesus crucified for me.
But even could I see him die,
I could but see a little part
Of that great love which, like a fire,
Is always burning in his heart.
Hosea 6:4 NRSV
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early.
It is most wonderful to know
His love for me so free and sure;
But ‘tis more wonderful to see
My love for him so faint and poor.
1 John 3:23-24 NRSV
And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.
And yet I want to love thee, Lord.
O light the flame within my heart,
And I will love thee more and more,
Until I see thee as thou art.
Atoning Savior, thank you that you didn’t turn back, but endured all the way to death on the cross, and beyond. Because of your death, we can live eternally. With this knowledge, help us face our own deaths with courage, faith, and hope.Amen.[4]
It Is a Thing Most Wonderful
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Corinthians 4.15).
[1] Words: William Walsham How, 1872 / Music: English folk melody harmonized by Ralph Vaugh Williams, 1906.
[2] It Is a Thing Most Wonderful, #165, The Sing! Hymnal, 2025, p. 918.
[3] Athanasius of Alexandria, “On the Incarnation of the Word.” From The New City Catechism Devotional, 2017, pp. 109-110.
[4] The New City Catechism Devotional, 2017, p. 111.
