LOOK at the earth here! How pretty everything is! Look at the grass and the trees, the flowers and all the animals. Can you pick out the elephant and the lions?

How did this beautiful garden come to be? Well, let’s see how God got the earth ready for us.

First, God made green grass to cover the land. And he made all kinds of small plants and bushes and trees. These growing things help to make the earth pretty. But they do more than that. Many of them also give us foods that taste very good.

God later made fish to swim in the water and birds to fly in the sky. He made dogs and cats and horses; big animals and small animals. What animals live near your home? Shouldn’t we be glad that God made all these things for us?

Finally, God made one part of the earth a very special place. He called this place the garden of Eden. It was just perfect. Everything about it was beautiful. And God wanted the whole earth to become just like this pretty garden he had made.

But look at the picture of this garden again. Do you know what God saw that was missing? Let’s see.

WHAT is different in this picture? Yes, it is the people in it. They are the first man and woman. Who made them? It was God. Do you know his name? It is Jehovah. And the man and woman came to be called Adam and Eve.

This is how Jehovah God made Adam. He took some dust from the ground and with it he formed a perfect body, a man’s body. Then he blew into the man’s nose, and Adam came to life.

Jehovah God had a job for Adam. He told Adam to name all the different kinds of animals. Adam may have watched the animals for a long time so he could pick the best names for them all. While Adam was naming the animals he began to see something. Do you know what that was?

The animals all had mates. There were papa elephants and mama elephants, and there were papa lions and mama lions. But Adam had no one to be his mate. So Jehovah made Adam fall into a deep sleep, and he took a rib bone from his side. Using this rib, Jehovah made a woman for Adam, and she became his wife.

How happy Adam was now! And think how happy Eve must have been to be put in such a beautiful garden to live! Now they could have children and live together in happiness.

Jehovah wanted Adam and Eve to live forever. He wanted them to make the whole earth as pretty as the garden of Eden. How happy Adam and Eve must have been when they thought about doing this! Would you have liked to share in making the earth a pretty garden? But the happiness of Adam and Eve did not last. Let’s find out why.