How the world began

Long long ago, even before time began, there was nothing to see at all. No trees, no animals, no people or houses - nothing but darkness.

But God was there, and into this darkness God made light - so the very, very first day ever had started.

Then God started to make all the seas, and in between the water he made dry land, covering it with all kinds of trees and plants.

Over all this God placed a bright, shining sun to shine by day and the moon and stars to shine by night.

And so the world began.

Then God filled the seas with fish of many colours, and above the land he made birds that filled the air.

For the land, God made animals of every kind. All the animals you can think of - from ants to zebras.

Then God created the first ever people - one man and one woman. He called them Adam and Eve, and he put them in charge of caring for all the animals and plants and things.

Everything was beautiful in this new world that God had made. It took God only six days to make the whole world and everything in it!

Wow! Does that show you just how amazing God is? It would take us more than 6 days just to count all the different animals and trees and plants in the world!

God is so powerful, that he can create anything and everything. He is more powerful than any person you can think of - even more powerful than a superhero!

God decided to rest on the seventh day, setting it apart and calling it a holy day, or a sabbath, which means "day of rest". I think I would need a rest after doing all that work - don't you?!

In one very special place on the earth, God laid out a beautiful garden for Adam and Eve to live in. It was full of lovely plants and trees, clean rivers and trees with tasty fruit to eat.

God gave Adam the important job of giving every animal a name - the cat, the kangaroo, the elephant, the spider - all animals were given names by Adam.

How many different animals can you name? It must have taken Adam a very long time to think of names for all of God's wonderful animals.

Adam and Eve lived happily in the garden of eden, and they had everything they needed.

In the centre of the garden grew a special tree. It was called the tree of knowledge. God made it very clear that this tree was different from all other trees, and that Adam and Eve must not eat the fruit of this tree.

One day a snake saw Eve standing looking at the tree of knowledge. "why dont you take a piece of fruit?" the snake said to Eve.

"I am not allowed to", Eve said. "God told us not to touch".

"Did he really?" the snake said. "Are you sure he said that?"

"Yes. God told us to leave it alone" Eve replied.

"God just doesn't want you to have fun", the snake said. "Look how lovely and tasty the fruit looks."

So the snake managed to talk Eve in to doing what God had told them not to do, and eat the fruit. After Eve had taken a bite, she passed it to Adam, and he ate it too.

Adam and Eve felt really bad that they had listened to the snake instead of God, so they tried to hide.

God called out to Adam, and He knew what they had done.

God was upset that Adam and Eve had not listened to Him, and He said that they would have to leave the beautiful garden because of what they had done.

After Adam and Eve left, God sent an angel to protect the garden.

God's perfect world was no longer perfect. Sin (which means doing something wrong), had come in to the world for the first time.