At times it takes an eternity before something within our scope of creativity to be determined as useful. I don’t doubt that God was the source of the creation of earth, a part of the initial creation within all that we see in the heavens above us. I believe some 12.4 billion years passed from that initial time of creation, before God determined that earth could support creatures within his desire to give life. The creatures, long before the creation of man, were given a being that witnessed an earth that changed within the scope of their existence. Extreme cold, heat, the scope of the earth dividing in a way that would balance its’ needs, wayward astroids that over time would hit the earth and end a large portion of the life that God had created. During that period of time, a few thousand years, God witnessed the dangers within the life of the creatures of his creation. Things reacted to one another … perhaps generating in God the thought of man. A creation with the ability to think, and develop near the the likeness of himself. A creature that with the ability to think, to communicate, to accomplish things within the future whose presence … a being that might help extend life for those upon earth.
One would say that doesn’t agree with Genesis within the Bible on creation. That is true, but when given to man it had to be in words that the human at that time could understand and accept. There is no way they could understand words concerning billions of years within history. I think God knew at that time that man’s thinking ability would improve over the years yet to come, and be able to determine the scope of his creation, and see why the words in Genesis were deemed proper at the time.
If what I’ve written about the creation of man being to serve the purpose of helping God’s creations extend life, perhaps it’s something that we should consider about where we are today. If we continue to destroy the world, it may take time, but we will have lost the need of being God’s creation for a purpose. A thought perhaps worth consideration.