At first, the earth was without form. Everything was dark and void. This was apparently depressing to God, so he said, presumably to himself, "Let there be light!" And a light appeared. It wasn't the sun, though. God waited a few days to create the sun. At this moment he needed a special light for creating other things before the sun.
When God saw this light, he thought it was good. It wasn't too dim or too bright. No adjustment was necessary. God decided to separate the light from the darkness, though, calling them "day" and "night." Apparently they were all tangled up at first, causing a sort of swirl effect.
On Tuesday, God decided to divide the waters, so he said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." God called the firmament "heaven." Many years later, people on earth would start calling it "outer space."
On Wednesday, God gathered the waters on earth together in pools, so dry land could appear. He said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth." He had a way with words.
By Thursday, God was unsatisfied with the light he previously let be. So he said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth."
This was strange, because God was already using the other light to count days and nights. Nonetheless, a spinning ball of very hot gas fueled by nuclear fusion reactions appeared about 93 million miles away. God called it the "sun," and ordered it to rule the day.
To rule the night, he created a lesser light, called the moon, along with many, many stars. God set these lights in the firmament of the heaven, then took a look around and saw that it was good. All that was needed was some life to appreciate the new scenery.
Paul Lundgren is a newspaper columnist and a very nice man. His e-mail address is paul @ geekprom.com.