What does it mean that we were created in the image of God?
After God created all the animals, God created mankind. People are not another animal; God created us separately in His image. What does that mean, in His image? Obviously we are not all powerful, all knowing, and we are not holy. What this does mean is we were made with the capacity to have a personal relationship with our Creator. Like God, we know the difference between good and evil. Like God, we have feelings and emotions and we can respond to other people’s feelings and emotions. Like God, we can forgive, be compassionate and show mercy. God uses His own creativity to create, and because we are made in His image, we have the capacity to use creativity to build bridges, buildings, and washing machines. People continue to learn new things and to develop their talents and skills with each generation taking knowledge from the previous one and building on it.
Yes, other animals can create; beavers can build dams, termites build complex nests with air vents to regulate temperature and birds make nests, some quite complex. But these animals do not use their own creativity; God gives them that ability by what we call instincts.
People are a special creation made in the image of God.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Genesis 1:26