In God's Image

It is said in the Bible that we were created in God’s Image. Does this mean that God is floating around up there somewhere in the shape of a man? It should be fairly obvious that this is not so. Does God have any kind of body? The answer to this would have to be yes, but since God is not singular, he must then exist in all bodies. And all bodies would have to include everything that is of the physical nature.

As such there has to be certain qualities that must be in every form that exists in this universe simply because it all originally came from a single source. Either that or there is only one practical combination of energies that can be sustained as “life” in any universe and thus all forms of “life” which exist are limited to what can be done within this combination. Either way, That which came into existence which knows that it exists and is able to effect Creation must be defined as “Life.” And as this “Life” exists in many different greater and lesser forms there is in a sense a hierarchy to it.

In order to understand this greater aspect of existence perhaps we should start from the beginning. In the beginning there was nothing but the Infinite. In the east this form is called Brahma. In essence this is the form we exist in. Thus, it is our reference point or you might say the definition of the greater space in which we live. Eventually, there came to exist what some refer to as the I Am. The I Am is that form which observers.

The next thing to come was the Mind. The Mind is sometimes called the Consciousness. This is the form from which all things can be considered, evaluated, and known. After this came the Reason. The Reason is that form which can deduce an appropriate action based on what the Mind considers. After this came the Imagination. The Imagination is that form which can “visualize” an action. After this came the Will. The Will is that form which can act upon the things of the Infinite in order to produce form.

These basic constituents constitute the foundation of all life. They are aspects of God and they are aspects of us and they do not require a physical body to exist. Thus, as it is taught in the east, in the beginning there was nothing physically visible in the Infinite. It was only after the development of the Observer, who first assessed the state of the universe in His Mind, then developed the Reason which would figure out how to Create something of the Infinite which was at first only visualization in the Imagination, which was finally manifested into a physical form by the force of Will.

Even to this day this process is still alive in the universe. And we engage in the same process every day in our own lives. It is these higher qualities within us that make us in the Image of God. But, who is God, and how did he come to create us?