Amid natural disasters and discords and tragedies seeming to rise from every direction I know a story. It’s a good story that doesn’t get told often enough. A story shrouded in mystery, yet visible as the rising sun.

Someone envisioned a world. A beautiful earth hanging in space. It needed light — and so the idea of day was born. A divide from the night. And after that a separation of waters with an expanse called heaven. The waters below the heavens were gathered into seas. Dry land appeared.

Land which could bring forth vegetation. Plants and trees with seed-bearing fruit so they could live on. But more was needed. Specific lights in the sky for times and seasons. The greater light for the day and the lesser for night. And so the fixed order of sun and moon and stars came into being.

Yet there was an emptiness on the earth. The visionary thought of sea creatures and birds who would reproduce, of land animals who would multiply and cover the world. They were detailed and vivid and amazing. A great raucous shout upon the silent earth.

Still there was something missing. Beings greater than the animals. Ones who could think and dream. Who could understand and feel and communicate beyond the limitations of creatures. And so human kind was given breath. Male and female formed in the likeness of the visionary.

The grand plan was an earth and its people in harmony. Peoples from every nation with enough food to eat. Lush green plants supplying everyone. No death. No tears. No sickness. A paradise.

No evil of any sort was built in to this world. But the knowledge of it was not out of reach. Because humans could choose. Unlike the visionary they could be tempted. And eventually it happened.

When it did destruction followed. Every hurtful thing not present in the beginning became possible. And the visionary’s wisdom understood this could not go on without end. And so the beautiful beings — and the beautiful earth — though allowed to continue for a time were not going to be able to live on forever.

Or are they? There is more story yet to tell. Joyful, tragic, surprising, exciting.

Some might call it a “made up” story. Others know it as a God-made story.