sound of a soft breath

Listen to Colossians Chapter 1
or read "The Supremacy of Christ"

So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. ... (Colossians 1:15a New Living Translation)

What does it mean to be created in the image of God? What is the image of God? I am sure it has nothing to do with looks. Dr. Peter May, a British doctor, speaker, and author attempts to define it by pointing to six unique characteristics of human beings that the rest of God's creation does not share:

Creative - ability or power to imagine and create with originality
Intelligent - "capacity for understanding and rational thought"
Aesthetic - sensitivity to and the appreciation of beauty,
Moral - conscience; awareness and concern with the judgment of good and evil
Relational - desire for interaction with others; interest in others; love
Spiritual - interest in the intangible, immaterial; our soul

God has shared these characteristics with us humans. In God they are all there infinitely and perfectly. In us they are there but limited and clouded. In conclusion Dr. May writes the following.

All these themes then challenge our humanity and ask us if we are really alive? Are we creative, thinking, artistic, moral, relational beings, who hunger after God? Are we growing on all fronts? Are we well-balanced individuals, giving proper attention to each area?

Now an image is but a reflection of the original. Sometimes the image may be hazy and distorted. But it does not exist on its own. Beyond the image is the reality. The Image of God in us not only helps us to see who we really are, but also reveals God to us. But we are not left searching through a haze to find hints and images of the One who made us. For the Christian testimony is that the one in whose image we are made, has come among us and revealed himself. 'No-one has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.'(Jn 1:18)

St Paul wrote, (Col 1:15-19) 'He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created...For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him...'

It is therefore not a coincidence that these major themes are themselves the best evidences for God. The argument from Creation, from Intelligence, from Beauty, from Morality, from Love, from our intrinsic Hunger for God and of course from the person of Christ himself in his teaching, deeds, character, claims, death and resurrection are the major lines of argument for the existence of God." (Read more from Dr. May's article on www.bethinking.org)
I find an incredible beauty in the fact that God created us in His image. What value and purpose I find in this fact. Not only that, but God has put the evidence of his existence very close to humans, in fact, the best evidence for God IS us. It is remarkable to me that God created humans, as Robert A. Morey in his book Death and the After Life has put it, "to be and do on a finite level what God was and did on an infinite level."