Genesis Chapter 1, Verse 2 (also through verse 31)

Genesis Chapter 1:

Verse 2:

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Comments:

(also with reference to the rest of the chapter, verses 3-31)

Here we have the first indication that the creation was a process, done in stages. God didn’t simply materialize a fully-formed and organized world environment with complex interactive ecosystems of adaptable living things and the weather and tides with a moon and the planet in its orbit around the sun in the solar system in its place in the universe, all just at the same instant. (nor, in speaking to Old Testament prophets such as Moses, did God oversimplify and claim to have done so) I might believe that with advanced planning (no matter how quickly an infinitely intelligent God might be able to plan it, even seeming instantaneous to us, perhaps) and everything previously arranged just so, God could possibly do such a thing instantly (or in a way that would seem instantly to us) but the fact that it wasn’t done that way, nor did God claim to have done so, suggests to me that it wouldn’t have been the best way to form and organize the earth. It seems to me more logical, more natural, more wise, to do this kind of work in stages, making sure each stage is just right and good, before proceeding on to the next. Which seems right to me with the way I believe God works; in keeping with laws of physics and nature and the universe, in wisdom and order, organized with thought put into it and even if God already knew each stage of work in the creation process would be right, to still check and see that it was, at each step. Like someone who would be patient and allow time for each step in the process to be organized in the optimum way naturally, not like someone with a deadline or with something to prove who wants results immediately and would, for example, simply cause all the microscopic life in the oceans to have multiplied and achieved an ideal equilibrium in some sort of instant method utilizing loopholes in the laws of physics and nature so that the plants, fish and other larger life to be put into the oceans could also be added instantly and have their water already ideally suited for them. The patient God would organize the oceans and introduce the microscopic life and allow them time to multiply and adapt and achieve just the right balance naturally, and then cause the larger (non-microscopic) forms of life to appear, in a gradual way that wouldn’t entirely ruin the balance that the microscopic life had achieved.