The Creation and Adam and Eve

On the first day the world had ever known, God had a busy week in front of him. He said, ‘We will have light and darkness, and I will call the light day, and the dark part night.’ It all happened just as he said.

On the second day God decided there should be lots of sky all round the world. He called the sky Heaven. The next day he made all the land, and all the seas. He said that grass and plants and fruit would grow on the land.

On Thursday God worked a bit more on the light and darkness. He put finishing touches to it and threw in lots of stars. He was very pleased with what he had done.

The fifth day was very important for God. He made all the birds, and all the fishes. ‘Have lots of children,’ he told them. That’s why there are so many birds in the sky and fishes in the sea.

He had to sleep, and the next morning he said, ‘Today I shall make all the animals for the land, and if I have time I shall make a man, and he can be just like me.’ He thought that was a very good idea.

By this time it was the world’s seventh day - Sunday. God was very tired, he had worked hard for six whole days.

‘I shall make this my day of rest,’ he said.

And that’s why we’re all a bit lazy on Sundays.

When God had rested for a while, he got down to making the most beautiful garden. He called it the Garden of Eden. It had wonderful trees, and flowers. It even had lots of birds and animals in it. Whatever your favourite animal is, it was there.

God put the man he had made into the garden. The man rubbed his eyes and looked all round. God said to him, ‘Now listen, Adam (that was the man’s name) you can eat the fruit, climb the trees, paddle in the rivers and jump over the bushes, but there’s one thing you must never do. You must never eat the apples from the big tree in the middle of the garden because that tree tells you what is good and what is bad.’

Adam said, ‘What’s bad?’

‘Never mind,’ said God, ‘you go and have a nice time, and forget about that tree.’