"I LOVE TO TELL THE STORY"
by Evelyn Tyner (Eptyner@aol.com)

Click here for Full songsheet in PDF

Chorus:
I love to tell the story
Vast flaming forth in glory!
Expansion and creation
So we can learn and love.

1.
I love to tell the story
Of universe and change--
How stars explode in glory
To birth new atoms strange.
I love to tell the story
How molecules evolved
And gathered into matter
That swirled and then revolved.
(chorus)

2.
In galaxies expanding
A star became our Sun.
The Earth and other planets
Condensed from out that one.
Four billion years from then
We sing a new, new song
That traces out the story
How spirit loved that long.
(chorus)

3.
The universe is holy!
From (poison!) cyanide
Nucleic acids burgeoned
And proteins beside.
Photosynthesis evolved
And changed the atmosphere;
With energy from sunlight
The dance of life is here.
(chorus)

4.
The universe is holy
In unexpected ways:
Invading microbes integrate
With cells that they invade.
So symbiosis led the way --
Eukaryotic cells
Could now evolve in glory
As our new story tells.
(chorus)

5.
The universe is holy!
In its diversity
Our biosphere developed
From Archea to me!
We share this planet's glory
Where species live and strive
In DNA's strange kinship
We celebrate, alive.
(new chorus)
I love to tell the story
Vast flaming forth in glory:
The universe is holy!
And wholeness is its gift.

References:

Swimme, B. and Berry,T. 1992. The Universe Story (for most of this hymn, but especially Chorus and v. 1&2)

Matthews, C.: 2000. "Chemical Evolution in a Hydrogen Cyanide World," in Environmental Evolution, Margulis, Matthews, and Haselton, 2nd edition. (for v. 3 re cyanide as precursor of nucleic acids and proteins)

Margulis, L. 2000. "Symbiosis and the Origen of Protists," op. cit. (for v. 4 re endosymbiosis)

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