Reading just the very beginning of John 1 brings to mind a thought: I don’t know for sure, but it would make sense to me that the plan was presented to us all and decided upon before the world was created. The reason this makes sense is because God had Jesus Christ create it. It would make sense to me that Christ had been chosen, by this point, to redeem and save us all, and that by having Christ create the earth and all that in it was, God was actually helping to prepare Christ to be able to endure the atoning for our sins.
When we put in our time, effort, energy, intelligence, joy, and love to creating something for someone else, we are connected to it and to them. Service and sacrifice grows love. Is it possible the God was helping Christ to grow a deeper love and connection to us all through having Him create all that we find beautiful and magnificent? Allowing Him to share himself with us through the creation, connecting Him more deeply and fondly to us, so when enduring the incredibly harsh pains of our sins and sufferings, He could more easily center on an eternal purpose and love that had been carefully grown and allow that to help Him through it?
To me, it seems nothing is wasted in the eternities.
