Of all creation, only human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. When God looked at the oceans and mountains He had created, He said, “good” (Gn 1:12, 18). After God created human beings, He said, “very good” (Gn 1:31). We are the crown of creation. We are God’s pride and joy.

Consequently, Satan, in his rebellion against and hatred of God, thought that disfiguring God’s prize creation would be a prime way to offend God. So Satan seduced us into yielding to his temptations. In that way, he wounded and warped human nature. God’s masterpiece seemed ruined.

Then God sent His Son to become a man. Jesus, the God-Man, is the perfect Image of the Father (Col 1:15) and the perfect man (Eph 4:13). By being baptized into Jesus and by imitating Him, we “are being transformed from glory to glory into His very image by the Lord Who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18). In Baptism, our disfigured, wounded, and warped human nature is buried, and we received a new nature by which we share in the divine nature (2 Pt 1:4). Thus, as new creations in Jesus (see Gal 6:15), we are even more in the image and likeness of God than when human beings were first created. The Lord has worked all things together for the good of those who love Him (Rm 8:28). Baptized into Christ and made holy by the Spirit, we live as Christ’s disciples, restored and transformed into an even better image and likeness of God. We are the crown of God’s new creation. We are more than His pride and joy. We are His sons and daughters. Alleluia!