There is an expression - the painting has a life of it's own. When I was a child my mother gave me a small lump of coal. The fruit jar she provided was hers as was the bluing that I poured sparingly poured into the bottom of the fruit jar in which I had placed the coal. Well like a painting that comes to life when looked upon that lump of coal came to life and flowered into amazing crystals. This reminds me of how God created plants.
Genesis 2:5
and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
Genesis 1:11
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
As I understand it God created the plants and herbs of the field without life and then added the water and then commanded life of this type to begin. Of course it is pretty hard, or rather, impossible to figure out what life is to them. Same thing with animals. I asked my dog what is life, and although he is a pretty intelligent creature, he had no answer for me. I didn't think it was any use trying to explain to him how God created animals and the breath of life which scripture as I understand it is shared by God's creatures. By some definition plants, creatures and humans are alive, they exist much like the lump of coal my mother gave me. The lump of coal that reminds me of a few verses in John 10
[SUP]9 [/SUP]I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. [SUP]10 [/SUP]The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.