The passage from Colossians 1:16,17 does not preclude the Genesis creation story from being a metaphor.
From the Big Bang until now, the universe has functioned within a very strict set of parameters known as physical laws. Those physical laws cause matter to behave the way we have observed—heavenly bodies coalesce from clouds of dust because of the law of gravity, atoms interact with each other in very specific ways to form molecules, evolution proceeds because biological molecules exhibit very specific physical behaviors.
You can attribute the existence of matter and the fact that it operates according to very rigid and precise parameters—which allow for life to evolve—to the hand of God.
Also, the concept of maleness and femaleness is almost universal among living things. Anything more advanced than a virus is male or female, because survival depends upon being able to mix up DNA (in a very specific manner, of course). That, too, is a consequence of the physical parameters of the universe that God designed.
“From the Big Bang until now...”
An idea one can only cite from a faith-based text.