I believe that we bear the image of God.

I believe that each of us bears the image of God. So many people have written about what this means. I’m only on UT2 and I’m already way out of my depth. But let me share some of the reasons that this UT matters to me.

The first thing people usually point out here is that just as God is a thinking and moral being, so are we. That’s pretty cool in and of itself. If we were not thinking creatures, and specifically if we were not able to think in a way that makes some sense of our Universe (and this is not a Small Thing), life would be pretty dull. If we were not moral, able to make decisions about right and wrong, then the conflicts we already have would be that much worse. I mean, hungry for a Snickers bar? Kill for it. It could be nasty.

Something that I hear about less but gets me pretty excited is that just as God is a creator, we are creative. J.R.R. Tolkien says that God has made us his co-creators, meaning that He is working through us to extend His own creative effects. God creates “out of nothing,” and we create using what He give us. Leaf by Niggle is an example of Tolkien forming this idea into a parable.

Finally, as a Christian, I not only believe that God exists, but that He exists in three Persons, known collectively as the Godhead or the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all God, and all separate persons, but one Godhead. This is a mystery, and is one of the ways in which Christianity is amazingly different from other current philosophies and faiths. One of the amazing implications of the Godhead is that God has lived forever in perfect fellowship within the Godhead. When He created people in his image, I think that one of the strong messages He is sending us is that we ourselves are meant to live in unity and community.

So, we are created in the image of God, and among other things, that means that we are thinking, moral creatures, able to exercise creativity in our world, and that we are meant to live in community. How beautiful is that?