Big man, little God?
The Book of Genesis has no doubt that man was made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). Not in the sense of a photograph, since by definition God has no shape or form.
What He does have is will, wisdom, intellect, ethics, spirituality, speech and creativity, Man is in God’s image in that sense.
One might say that the Almighty is Big God and man is Little God.
That sounds really good, but modern life has reversed the mixture. We have such an inflated idea of man that the only way many of us can tolerate the thought of God is to say He is made in man’s image. With rather a scandalous result.
It is all very well to say that man has a brain and mind and therefore the God he makes is himself writ small – Big Man and Little God. But the history of recent generations sees other, rather more heinous traits in man. Man is mean, man is quarrelsome, man is selfish, man is cruel.
The Midrash says that when God was contemplating creating man He asked the angels’ view, and most of them warned Him of all the ugly things that man would be likely to do. Man would twist the truth, disturb the peace, and be a brute and a bully.
God was alarmed but He still thought man could make something of himself and his world.
These days God is probably sorry. If God is made in man’s image there is little hope for either of them, or for the world.