God’s creation of the human person is entirely different from the creation of all His other creatures. While the magnificent creation that we see around us came into being gradually by God’s command alone, the human person was created in a completely different and unique way.
God first formed our body from the dust of the earth and then breathed into us something that came from Him—His divine breath—giving us life and an immortal soul.
By giving us this divine gift, He created us so that we might resemble Him and be not merely creatures, like the rest of creation, but His children by grace.
He is our true Father, and we are His children.
He is the King, and we are the children of the King.
He is God, and we are called to become gods by grace, through the power of His Holy Spirit.
So that we might never forget our divine origin, He placed His divine image indelibly upon us, like a divine signature and an everlasting seal.
He created us “in His image,” giving us mind, reason, and spirit.
He gave us a mind so that we might think and make decisions with love.
He gave us reason so that we might act toward everyone with love, kindness, and compassion.
He gave us a spirit capable of experiencing God’s love and sharing it with others.
In other words, He created us so that everything within us might reflect His own love.
However, having given us the “image” as our foundation, God desired that we should freely strive to attain His “likeness,” using the freedom of will that He granted us.
This means becoming, through the power of the Holy Spirit, gods by grace, resembling our heavenly Father.
God is love, and we too are called to love.
God is good, and we too are called to become good.
God is merciful, and we too are called to show mercy.
God is perfect, and with His help, we too are called to strive for perfection.
As the fulfilment of our struggle to resemble Him and thus attain His likeness—that is, our theosis—God has promised that, after the death of our earthly body, He will receive us into His heavenly and divine Kingdom, which is the true Paradise.
The beginning of our struggle to attain God’s likeness and to resemble God, our heavenly Father, is the third step.
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