God, speaking to Moses (or maybe it was Adam and passed down to Moses), decides to reveal to him the creation of the Earth… and it is shown to him from the perspective of Earth.

Moses, in his own mind (or maybe in God’s great video screening room with actual 360 degree visual and sound) finds himself seeming to float above a mass of blackness – nothing to describe – formless… void.  The only thing, the ethereal presence of the Spirit seeming to hover over the inky depths of blackness.

Then a voice.  “Let there be light.”

Suddenly there is light – an expansive expression of energy passing through the universe, and to Moses’ eyes, it is like a switch has been flipped (did Moses cover his eyes from the sudden brightness?)  Maybe Moses has just experienced what we flippantly call “The Big Bang”.  Every year, we discover new properties of the quanta (“packets” of light).  Light.

Dark.  Void. Deep.
Then, Light.

All of this passing in seconds before Moses’ eyes… though I doubt Moses is experiencing a clear passage of time… only knowing that time is passing, as he sees light spreading at unimaginable speed.

Then the roiling mass of new energy and new matter that is spinning below his feet –at 1,000,000x speed begins to come together.

New scene.  Darkness.

Light again and it is clear that things are different.  Time has passed.  It is a new day.
The thing Moses knows to call Earth is covered with roiling deep and liquid water.  Time is still flying by.  The gasses and liquids begin to cool as Moses looks down onto the surface of the new planet.  Swirling, as Moses watches, the gasses begin to form in different layers the matter begins the process of cooling, solidifying, water draining away from sky.  In his ears, he hears God name the sky “Heaven.”

Fade to black.  It is good.

Light.  A measure of time has passed again.
Water, sky (the source of light must be hidden by the swirling mass of clouds – likely rich with various elements… most of which are not transparent!)…

And land begins to explode out of the waters.  Massive, incredible volcanic and tectonic activity, all passing by in super-sped up visuals.  Water pouring off of these new mountains, islands, and continents.  Perhaps, again from the perspective of on high, Moses watches the continents roving together, and seas and oceans gathering together to fill the spaces in between the lands

Then, sweeping across the land like the Genesis project from Star Trek, green.  God speaks and the first living things begin to form and grow.  At first, algae, fungi, moss, then ferns and plants… millions of years fly by in moments and trees are there – some of them bearing fruit!

Back to black.  Good.

Light, now more distinct… the roiling clouds seem to be fading.  Gasses being converted into Oxygen, Nitrogen and other transparent elements.  Moses, seeming to be standing on algae covered land, is looking up when the source of the light is revealed.  The sun.
At this speed of the movement of time, the sun slips in seconds across and below the horizon and the moon is suddenly lit by the sun’s light in reflection from the other side of the world!  Under the new, brighter sun, the plants are flourishing.

And this time, “day” and “night” begin to have some kind of basis for comparison.  But things are still moving, being exposed to Moses on this great “video screen” in his mind…
He is standing on a beach in his mind’s eye as the light fades up again – and he can see the ocean.  A fish leaps from the waves and his mind follows it, diving deeper and seeing the swarms of living things in the waters.  Breaking the surface again his eyes see birds flying across the sky… and God proclaims it good once again…

Fade to standing back on land, or maybe even souring over the lands like those birds… seeing different climates and ecosystems pass beneath him.  Below him, animals – thousands of thousands of species.  He can tell basics – beasts, livestock, creeping things – but it is too much too fast.  The traveling seems to be intentional and directional now…

God is pleased.

Suddenly, Moses is standing in a garden.   He overhears God speak, “Let us make man in our image…”

He sees them from afar, watching the man and woman, wandering about and then standing before God voice as God commands them and instructs them…

Ok, that makes the point…

I have other theories and questions and even flights of fancy that are little more than thoughts.  Due to the uniqueness of  the creation event, I doubt if anything will ever fully integrate what we think we know of biology and what little we have revealed to us about the garden.

Lord knows (I mean that literally) that I am honestly not trying to claim or teach any doctrinal stance…

But I have a strong belief that when natural science insights and biblical understanding seem to come into conflict it is imperative that we, as Christians and/or scientists must learn to be humble enough to accept that we are apparently not done… that our understanding of AT LEAST one of them is wrong (or minimally, incomplete).  Many times, the scientific community has been forced, after further work, to admit error in previous conclusions… and so has the Christian community (do some research on the Spanish Inquisition and the treatment of heliocentric theorists).

It seems like the traditional understanding of a young Earth is in conflict with the scientific findings.  Since it is impossible for both to be true at the same time, then our understanding of at least one must be wrong.

How would that happen?  One option is that we are wrong about what we think is being told to us in Genesis 1, if we think it is giving us a timetable.

Anyway, this little thought project has been entertaining for me – and enlightening that some of the order of Genesis 1 still doesn’t fit as well as I would like.  Certain things would have to overlap in order for this idea to work as an integration technique… fruit bearing plants before the sun is exposed and before there are animals would need some work, for example… were the days clear and cut and dry?

Was Moses being shown only one thing at a time from one locality at a time?  Maybe what God showed him was localized to a place where there were plants but no animal.

However, I enjoy thinking it through.
My son had some thoughts about this conversation, too.
More thoughts on the creation debate here.