1. You spoke your word: the heavens sprang to being, your voice the backdrop to the universe; you fanned the flame of stellar fusion, knowing ten thousand million years would bring to birth this glorious world, from ancient stardust founded, as stars newborn together sang with mirth; and aeons long coaxed formlessness to order: the light of God shone out and dawned across the earth. 2. You bound the deep, you brooded on its waters: you clothed its clouds, made mists its swaddling bands; you breathed upon the earth and skies and oceans, and life came forth from deepest sea to land. And with your breath humanity gained wisdom: our lives imbued with your enlivening worth. You delegate us crown of all creation: image of God, entrusted stewards of your earth. 3. You are the Word, the Word from the beginning, in you is life, the light of humankind; yet leaving all, you made with us your dwelling: image of God in human form confined. And here for us you took a servant nature, as Prince of Life, obedient unto death; now raised on high, exalted by the Father, the Son of God to whom will bow each knee on earth. 4. You, Christ, are Lord, not only in the dawning, but when the darkness is our closest friend; and through our lives, with mirth and woe entangling, you walk beside; you greet us at the end. So give us breath and voice, that with the angels we may proclaim and blaze your glory forth: Come, risen Lord, among us make your dwelling; renew, O God, through us creation and the earth. "Hymn for Tom." For the late Tom McLeish (1962-2023) with deep gratitude.