What does it mean for man to be in God’s image?  It means that on a creaturely level, human beings do what God does and have capacities that imitate God’s infinite capacities.

Can we unpack that?  The best way, I submit, is (initially) to stay within the narrative of Genesis 1.  If man images God, we should ask what God does.  So, what does God do?

First thing, He creates.  If man is image, it is because we too create.

Second thing, He speaks.  If man is image, it’s because we speak.

We can stop there for the moment and address an objection: Man is not unique in being a maker; nor is he unique in speaking.  We need to be more specific.

Animals make.  Ants build impressive hills with networks of tunnels bees and wasps build intricate nests; beavers build dams.

Animals communicate too.  Bees do the honey dance when they get back to the hive; male elk bugle when they’re in love; dogs communicate eagerness to please with their tails, while cats communicate universal contempt and ennui with every move.

What’s unique about human making and speech?  It’s uniquely Godlike in this respect, I think: God created a world He didn’t need, using speech He didn’t need to speak.  Human beings are images of God in making things we don’t need to survive, in saying what we don’t need to say.

When we ornament our nests, we are imaging God.  When we cook our food, we are imaging God.  When we speak love poetry rather than making lustful grunts, we are imaging God.  We image God precisely in the fact that we are not acting out of an instinct for survival, when we make and speak what we could do well without.

To be image of God is to say with Lear: “O, reason not the need.”