Life itself is the most miraculous thing in all of God’s creation.

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:7

On the sixth day of creation, God did something unique and new.  We’re given a picture of God reaching down into the soil and forming a man with his hands.  Then he “breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul”.  Forming us with his hands from soil implies something more personal, more important, more special than the rest of creation.  We’re the only living things made in God’s own image, assembled personally by God’s own hands, with an eternal soul, breathed into us by God.    

God made Adam from the materials of the earth that God had created.  But when God breathed the breath of life into Adam, he became a living soul.  God’s breath isn’t material, since God is spirit, not material.  Our souls aren’t made from anything found on earth.  Our souls include our minds, wills, and emotions, none of which is material, or even tangible.

Imago Dei – Made in God’s Image

We’re made in the image and likeness of God for a purpose.  We have the unique opportunity to know God – to return his love, worship him, serve him, and fellowship with him.  This isn’t true for anything else God created.  St. Athanasius wrote in his short treatise On the Incarnation that the chance to know our Maker provides the only way for us to have a genuinely happy and blessed life.

§ 11   “… and why should God have made them at all, if he had not intended them to know him?  But, in fact, the good God has given them a share in his own Image, that is, in our Lord Jesus Christ, and has made even themselves after the same Image and Likeness.  Why?  Simply in order that through this gift of Godlikeness in themselves they may be able to perceive the Image Absolute, that is the Word himself, and through him to apprehend the Father; which knowledge of their Maker is for men the only really happy and blessed life.”

Athanasius, Saint. On The Incarnation (p. 12)

Hebrew scholar Dr. Michael Heiser says that Hebrew grammar is the key to understanding what it means to be made “in God’s image”.  In English, the preposition ‘in’ usually refers to location, but it can carry many other ideas.  It is the same in Hebrew. 

If I say, “I work in education,” I am using the preposition to denote that I work as a teacher or principal, or in some other educational capacity.

This last example directs us to what the Hebrew preposition translated ‘in’ means in Genesis 1:26. Humankind was created as God’s image. If we think of imaging as a verb or function, that translation makes sense.  We are created to image God, to be his imagers. It is what we are by definition. The image is not an ability we have, but a status. We are God’s representatives on earth.

Heiser, Michael S. The Unseen Realm (p. 49)

When we end a prayer with the phrase “in Jesus’ name”, what we’re really saying is that we’re making our request as one of Jesus’ representatives on Earth.  I think that points back to the fact that God created humanity “in his image” to be his representatives on Earth, to rule over his creation in his name and in relationship with the Trinity.