People in every land have wondered how the world began and why they world is the way it is. People in every land have wondered how the world came to have a mixture of sadness and happiness, why there is both joy and sorrow. Many of the stories imagine that at the beginning of the world everything was perfect: that there was no sadness, no meanness, no worry. Many of the stories tell of that perfect time and then what happened and who did what and who we should blame. The people who made up the stories and told them again and again were religious people, people who were doing exactly the same thing we do today. They were looking for what their hearts and minds and experiences told them was true. Good stories don't just stay with facts we can check out; they are often filtered through our imaginations that let us think about what might have been.

This morning I will be preaching about Sin from a Unitarian Universalist perspective. I read lots of creation stories as I looked for a way to talk with you children this morning about how bad things came to be in the world. I couldn't find a story that told it just the way I wanted it told. So I made up a story about the beginning of the world, a story that my heart and mind and experience-and imagination- tells me MIGHT have happened long, long ago ...

Once upon a time long, long, long ago there was a Creator who had a hobby of creating planets. The Creator took pride in making each one different* One day she looked at a gap in the solar system and said, "I think I'll make a planet to go over there. Let me think ... what will I make this one be like?" She sat and looked out into the vast reaches of swirling matter and thought long and hard about creating another new planet in her collection.

Now how she made planets was quite interesting. She had a very large closet in which she had rows and rows of shelves, little jars and boxes and envelopes of things. She took a large glass jar down from the shelf and she started adding ingredients to her planet.

A pinch of this, a pinch of that. In went daffodils and puppies and pizza. She added ladybugs and butterflies and fire ants, just to make her planet interesting. She poured in lots of liquid from the, jar marked Oceans and Seas and from the jar marked Clear Lakes and slowly poured in more liquid from a jar called Waterfalls. She smiled and added just a dash from the jar called Mud Puddles, just to make her planet interesting.

She decided to shake in a sample from all her boxes labeled Human Beings. Just to make it interesting, she combined people of all sizes and shapes and ages, many colors of skin and colors of hair, many different kinds of noses, and many different interests and skills. Over all the people she sprinkled some powder called Change, so that the people would change in size and age and interests and skills. "That will make this new planet interesting," she mused to herself, "I'm glad I thought to do this."

She looked in the section of her closet called Moods and Emotions, and she wondered whether she should add a little or a lot. She started with Love, adding more than two cups, and then, just to make the planet more interesting, she closed her eyes and reached in and took a handful from the Miscellaneous jar, where there were bits and pieces of Sadness and Courage and Loneliness and Happiness and Memory and Hope.

She shook out some Schools and Universities where people could come together to learn. She shook out some Churches and Temples so that people could come together to remember what was important in life. She added comfortable shoes and blue jeans and warm coats and bathing suits. From her section called smells, she shook in a pinch of Hyacinths,a pinch of Just Baked Chocolate Chip Cookies, a pinch of Freshly Mowed Grass, and, just to make it interesting, a pinch of Skunk.

She amused herself for days and days, designing her new planet. Finally she was almost done. Almost. There was one more ingredient she wanted to add.<

She moved jars around looking for one special jar she remembered that she had but she had never used before. Finally she found it, behind a jar called Kalimavda (which she didn't add so I don't know what that even would have added to her new planet!) She carefully lifted down a little jar labeled Freedom.

This time she had to read the label because she didn't remember exactly what was in the jar. The label read, "This compound contains the ability to make choices, to choose one thing instead of another thing. Use cautiously because the choices made will have consequences." The Creator smiled as she measured out twice the maximum recommended dosage into her glass jar. She said to herself, "This will make it especially interesting."

She held the jar in her hands, slowing turning it as she looked down into the open jar. A soft chuckle rumbled out of her mouth and into the jar. A tear tickled down her cheek into the jar. She leaned over the jar and blew her warm breath of life into it. And then she put a cover on the glass jar and flung it away into the star-speckled darkness.

It landed just where she intended, about 93,000,000 miles from her favorite Sun. The Creator watched her planet settle into its new home. She thought to herself, "I did a good job on that planet. I hope they'll like all the special things I did to make their planet interesting."

And she sat down with a good book, a bowl of popcorn, and some Kalimavda, whatever that is!