I donīt take life itself to be necessary, but as an example of something God might be impressed with, so that he creates. I donīt think that it entails that life must have arisen on earth, much less that the individual animals (like us two) must have been there, though Iīm very much convinced, that one could argue, that if God created a world, then life anywhere at some point must have arisen.
An alternative could be to say that God wills freedom for his creation or rather "creativity" (though it is hard to see what that could be without conscious agents).My idea was that God creates without determining, but that he knows through his act of creating since every moment in within him. I know that it doesnīt solve the problem as to how God knows a contingent fact without changing, but if successfull, it avoids modal collapse.