Thank you for sharing this experience! I’ve tried having similar conversations and met the same resistance. Many misinterpret “Do not lean on your own understanding” to mean only rely on the Bible, which is one way but not the only way to get outside of yourself to understand.

In my belief/interpretation/understanding, there is one more “living, breathing” manifestation of God’s word. God said let there be light and there was light.. and on through the rest of the “six days” of creation. God spoke and Creation was born. Then there’s the first few lines of John as back-up to this line of thought. In other words, Creation is literally God’s Word and the Word was with God and the Word was/IS God. What does that mean for us as created things? I’ll leave you to decide for yourself.