What if the One who shapes the stars

Authors:
Themes:
Book Number:
  • 1050

What if the one who shapes the stars
and puts the planets in their place
should set all majesty aside
and move amongst the human race?
What if the One who engineers
the eye, the ear, the heart, the brain,
should make his home here as a child
at Mary’s breast in Bethlehem?

2. What if the One who spoke the word
when all was dark, ‘Let there be light!’
should enter this disordered world
to make our fading hopes more bright?
What if the God who waits outside
should all at once be found within,
and Mary’s child be given the strength
to overturn the power of sin?

3. What if the One who always was,
creation’s hidden energy,
should – for love’s sake – inhabit time,
God’s living Word for all to see?
Yes, true it is: Christ’s Gospel truth,
the truth on which we all may build!
So let this be the truth for us
as now we welcome Mary’s child.

© David Mowbray/administered by the Jubilate Group
David Mowbray

Approaching God - Creator and Sustainer

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Tune

  • Ava
    Metre:
    • 88 88 D anapaestic
    Composer:
    • Mawson, Linda

A look at the author

Mowbray, David

b Wallington, Surrey 1938. Dulwich Coll; Fitzwilliam House, Cambridge (MA); Clifton Theological Coll, Bristol (BD). Ordained (CofE) 1963, he served parishes in Northampton (as curate), Watford (lecturer), Broxbourne (Herts, as incumbent), Hertford and (from 1991) Darley Abbey, Derby, until retirement to Lincoln in 2004. His hymnwriting began in 1978 while on a month’s residential clergy conference at Windsor Castle, where 2 of his texts were immediately sung in St George’s Chapel. This was followed by ‘a great burst of writing’ for some 18 months. His own first words-only collections for parish and school were Kingdom Come, Kingdom Everlasting and Kingdom Within (1978–84), mainly recommending standard hymn tunes, and some 50 of these texts are now formally published, from Partners in Praise (1979) onwards. Several are in Jubilate books (6 in Come Rejoice!, 1989, 15 in Sing Glory, 1999, 5 in Carol Praise, 2006), and publications from Stainer and Bell; Come to us, creative Spirit (1979) remains his most popular, while First of the week and finest day is a rare 20thc text on a once much-loved theme (see also J Ellerton, note). Come Celebrate: contemporary hymns (2009) includes his share of 15 texts. ‘The usual flashpoint for writing is the combination of an idea plus a tune’—DM. He was a member of the words group for Sing Glory, and is probably the most outstanding contemporary hymnwriter not yet (by 2011) to have a collected volume of his texts. Nos.119B, 469, 584, 921, 1050, 1226