The Word of God

I’m post­ing this for deb­o­rahlj and any­one else who has­n’t heard it. You can hear Kathy Mar’s ver­sion online, but if there’s any way you can find the Echo’s Chil­dren ver­sion with its love­ly har­monies instead, do so! Cat Faber is a PhD biologist.

The Word of God — sheet music
Lyrics and melody © 1994 by Cather­ine Faber 

From desert cliff and moun­tain­top we trace the wide design,
Strike-slip fault and over­thrust and syn and anticline…
We gaze upon cre­ation where ero­sion makes it known,
And count the count­less aeons in the band­ing of the stone.
Odd, long-van­ished crea­tures and their tracks & shells are found;
Where truth has left its sketch­es on the slate below the ground.
The patient stone can speak, if we but lis­ten when it talks.
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the rocks.

There are those who name the stars, who watch the sky by night,
Seek­ing out the dark­est place, to bet­ter see the light.
Long ago, when tor­ture broke the rem­nant of his will,
Galileo recant­ed, but the Earth is mov­ing still.
High above the moun­tain­tops, where only dis­tance bars,
The truth has left its foot­prints in the dust between the stars.
We may watch and study or may shud­der and deny,
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the sky.

By stem and root and branch we trace, by feath­er, fang and fur,
How the liv­ing things that are descend from things that were.
The moss, the kelp, the zebrafish, the very mice and flies,
These tiny, hum­ble, word­less things—how shall they tell us lies?
We are kin to beasts; no oth­er answer can we bring.
The truth has left its fin­ger­prints on every liv­ing thing.
Remem­ber, should you have to choose between them in the strife,
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote life.

And we who lis­ten to the stars, or walk the dusty grade,
Or break the very atoms down to see how they are made,
Or study cells, or liv­ing things, seek truth with open hand.
The pro­found­est act of wor­ship is to try to understand.
Deep in flower and in flesh, in star and soil and seed,
The truth has left its liv­ing word for any­one to read.
So turn and look where best you think the sto­ry is unfurled.
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the world.