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'«and there was man"

by theodore r. pokorny, [r.

"T HERE WAS darkness and emptiness; a vacuum devoid of all but a

cooling round ball. For infinity there was nothing; and then,
at one undated moment in time, the darkness faded, and a light erna-
nated from another object. The light became brighter, and the object
.seerned to move; it was in spirit form. The spirit looked upon that
which was visible and saw nothing but a cooling mass. That spirit
was God. As God looked around, He was displeased and He said,
"Let there be light!" He took light in His hands and molded it and
threw it against the emptiness. Millions of pieces scattered as it £lew,
and there were the sun and the stars. God took more light, molded it,
'and threw it against the heavens; and there was the moon.

Now God looked at the heavens and then at the earth, and He
'said, "I am lonely." He wept; and His tears fell on the earth, and
there were oceans and rivers and streams. And God said, "Let this,
my earth, bring forth vegetation-plants giving seed, and fruit trees
which yield fruit-and each shall bear the seed of its kind and shall
multiply." God looked upon this and said that it was good. Then He
said, "Let the rivers and the oceans bring forth living creatures; and
across the heavens shall fly the fowl of the air." God watched His
creatures grow and multiply and He was happy. But once again He
rested, this time on the bank of a stream, and He said, "I am still
lonely."

So God thought, and as He thought He watched the fish in the
.stream; the living creatures crawling and creeping in and on the mud
-of the stream. And then God said, "I shall make man in My own
image." So God bent down and scooped some mud from the stream
and in His hands He made man and breathed into His creation the
breath of life. Man was created; he wandered on the earth; he en-
joyed the plenty and the beauty. But man, too, was lonely. One
evening man bent down on his knees and cried out to God saying,
"God, I am lonely; can you not give me a companion?" And that
evening, while man slept, God created a woman; and in the morning
when man awoke he found there another of his likeness, and he
thanked God. Then God said unto him that they should be fruitful
and multiply; that he and his children would rule the earth and dis-
cover its secrets. And this man did ... he ruled the world! He listened

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