In four days, God created the earth and separated the water from dry land. He created heaven, the sun, the moon and the stars. He had looked on all of it and saw that it was good. Things were shaping up nicely heading into the weekend.
On Friday, God said, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven." This command brought forth many creatures that swim and fly. Hunting and fishing season wouldn't start until Saturday, though.
God blessed the fish and fowl, telling them to, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas." He looked at the lower part of the food chain, and saw that it was good. With the right spices, it would later prove delicious.
On Saturday, God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind -- cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth." And so it was that creeping beasts were born of the earth.
"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," God said next. He obviously didn't need help from his creatures to spontaneously generate new life forms, so it can be concluded that God began talking to himself in the plural or "editorial we" at this time.
And so God created mankind in his own image. It wasn't a physical image, of course, because God has no body. He created the first man with an immortal soul resembling his, and he granted mankind dominion over the other creatures. Those creatures, by the way, had no souls but were blessed by God anyway.
God said, "I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food."
God looked upon everything he had made and saw that it was good, which couldn't have been much of a surprise. Beholding a job well done, he decided to take Sunday off and contemplate what he had done. He blessed this day off and sanctified it, so that humankind should also rest on Sunday and honor his work.
That's why, to this very day, people don't work on Sundays unless they are part of the lower class and are unable to find employment that doesn't require them to serve those who have the day off.
Paul Lundgren is a newspaper columnist and a very nice man. His e-mail address is paul @ geekprom.com.
