The Story of Creation, Genesis 1-3, version paraphrase by Ursula

About 6000 years ago, God Created the Heaven and the Earth.

He made it out of Nothing! He made everything else, too. The sky, the sun, moon and stars, the planets! There wasn’t anything made that He didn’t make! He made all the rules of the universe, the rules about gravity, time, space, motion, sound! Everything about how things would work. He made it all. And it worked. Right away, all rotating, in motion, balancing each other out, just as it should be. He put great care into the Planet Earth. He made it just how He wanted it to be. Warm. Cozy. Gentle breezes. Low Hills. He spoked it into existence, that first day. And God said, "Let there be Light." And there was Light. Just like that!

He continued on, the creation process. Sun and moon and stars. When He had everything just how he wanted it to be, He created life. The first living things were the plants. He made many kinds of plants. Deep in the sea and also more on dry land. Beautiful plants, grasses, trees. Trees with fruits and nuts. Trees to burn in the fire to give warmth. Grains to eat. Bulbs to eat. Flowers to give us smells and beauty! Everything from in His imagination. He was preparing everything for us. That was all on Day 4.

Then on Day 5, He was really building up momentum for the beautiful earth he was making for man! The birds of the air and the creatures that live in the sea. He let his imagination run wild! Great whales spouting water, playful porpoises , jelly fish, clown fish, nibbling minnows, trout, bass, catfish, great schools of fish and fish loners. Even swimming dinosaurs! Then, still the same Day, on to the birds of the air. They had wings, and they came in every variety imaginable. He gave them sweet song. Finches, ducks, geese, crows, chickens, and peacocks. Cockatoos, parrots and all manner of “talking birds”. Hawks, condors, ravens, swans. He was gearing up! God said they were all very good.

Day Six, an amazing day. Our day. Our world, ready for his final and greatest work, His crowning achievement – Us! He was making a home for the Man and Woman. We were the real project, the end goal. He was making everything for us. A place to live. Things to eat. Work to do. And living things to keep us company and for us to have to care for. He made them all. God said they were very good.

On Day Six, the last Creation Day, the earth was almost ready for Man. On that day, before Man, He created the animals. Dogs, cats, cows, bears, lions, tigers. Great animals with voices that shook the earth. Sweet animals whose barks and mews were sweet and unique, often to answer and relate to us. Animals that want to be with us, want to live with us. Animals that liked to be off in the woods, roaring and enjoying their place. We could observe them, see how mighty and majestic they are. There was no reason to be afraid back then, animals didn't kill each other, they all got along! They certainly didn't eat other animals! The plants, fruits, nuts and grains were for eating. Everyone’s body did just fine, they didn't need meat.

Then, finally and at last, Man. What God had spent five and a half Creation Days getting ready for! God made it look simple, this crowning achievement! God scooped down, and created man out of the very dust of the earth. Into this non-living dust of a man, He breathed into him His own breath. The very Breath of Life. And Man became a living being. God named His Man “Adam”. He gave Adam his first job: Name all those animals! There was probably about 8000 pairs of them, always male and female. Adam gave each one of them a name just for their kind.

Then, one final and important piece of Creation. While naming this parade of animals (it must have taken several hours to pass before Adam!), and remembering which one was which, Adam noticed there was no mate for him. Each of the animals had a mate, Adam expected there would be one for him, too. So when he had them all named, Adam asked God why he didn’t have a mate of his own. I believe God probably smiled. God proceeded to put Adam into a deep sleep. Then God took one of Adam’s ribs and made him his own mate. Then God woke Adam up and showed him his mate. Adam said she was bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, and called her Eve, because she would become the mother of all living.

You see, it sounds like a wonderful fairy tale. It sounds too good to be true. But it is OUR Fairy Tale, and it IS TRUE! God wrote it down for us in the Bible. He told us just how it was, because if He didn’t tell us, we couldn’t know. No one else was there when He made everything.

So He told us about it in the Bible, in the very first Book, and in the very first sentence of the Book:

Genesis 1:1 “In the Beginning, God created the Heaven and the earth.”

In a few short pages, we find out a world of things. How He wanted us, He loves us, and He took great love and care in making us. We started out perfect in Genesis, Chapters 1 and 2. Then, in Chapter 3, things went wrong. This perfect man, Adam, did the only thing God told Him not to do. And that first rebellion was the first sin. Adam and Eve had exercised their free will.

Sometime while God was creating all things He also created some heavenly beings to be with Him in Heaven. These were the angels. They were created to live with God and dwell right with Him. They were made with free will also, just like man. The ability, “God given”, they say, to think what they wanted to think, hope for what they wanted and to act how they wanted. To think their own thoughts, have their own opinions. Without that, something would be a robot. God wanted true fellowship. So at the risk of being rejected, God gave free will to the angels and then to the Man and Woman. Satan, one of the Created Angels, rebelled against God. He wanted God’s job. He convinced about a third of the angels in Heaven to rebel with Him. And he came to the perfect world to live there, instead of Heaven with God.

Satan was there when Adam was tending the Garden and having the perfect life. When God put Adam in the Garden, God told him he could eat anything that grew there, it was all for him. Only two trees, God told Adam not to eat their fruit. They were in the middle of the Garden. One was called “The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil” and the other was called “The Tree of Life”.

Satan was cunning. He entered a snake, and spoke through that snake. He went to Eve, and started to tempt her. He told her to admire the beautiful fruit of the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil”. Eve saw it, that it was good. And then, Satan disparaged God. He told Eve that God didn’t want her to eat it because then her eyes would be opened and she would understand things she never knew before. So she took the fruit, and did eat. She then gave some to to Adam, and he ate also.

Immediately, they knew what evil was. They didn’t really know before. They immediately knew, and worse yet, they were part of it. They were ashamed. They realized they didn’t have any clothes on. Before, that was perfectly fine, that’s how God made them. All the animals were naked too, it was okay. Now it wasn’t. Sins followed directly. They tried to cover themselves up, but only because now they knew shame. They hid from God. They were afraid. When God came to speak to them about it, similar to a parent and a young toddler, He had to shag them out of their hiding place and have a talk with them. He asked them what they did. Here comes the next round of sin, they each found someone to blame. Eve confessed: “Satan tempted me, and I ate.” Then Adam joined in the blame-game. “The woman you gave me, she gave it to me.” Talk about throwing someone under the bus. It was Eve’s fault, and then it was God’s fault for giving him Eve!

Long story made shorter here by me. The entire rest of the Bible gives us much detail about God, insights into His nature, His feelings about us and many examples ("Bible Stories") to help guide us in what to do and what to avoid doing. The Bible reveals God to us.

That is why we need to read it for ourselves. Sermons and teachings can be fine and good, but the real meat is in the Bible itself. It shows us how God still loves us, and is ready and able to forgive us. He made a way to bring us back into relationship with Him. He sent His Son, Jesus, who is also God, to die on the cross and pay for our sins. We had no way of paying. But He did. He was the parent with enough money in his account to bail out the child – pay for the toy the child stole. The child doesn’t have a penny to his name, no way on earth to pay. But God has a tender heart. He will pay it Himself. He will restore us.

The story of Salvation is a miracle in itself. When we turn to God, to Jesus, and ask Him into our life, we become a child of God. The Bible, God’s Holy and Infallible Word, His Love Letter to us, is our guide to what we need to know and what God wants us to do. Someone once called it “Bible – Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth”. We need to read it. It will tell us what we need to know!