Hi micah7:9,
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creepers creeping on the earth.
v. 27 And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him. He created them male and female.
The way I understand those words is that of all the creatures mankind is the only one that God formed to be "like" Him, natural/physically first, then later on spiritually.
1Cor 15:46 But not the spiritual first, but the natural; afterward the spiritual.
Now we know there are other animals that have some similarity in form to man like the chimpanzees and other ape type animals, but the Scripture says that God created man as a different species, animals are much lesser than humans and always have been and that line cannot be crossed. Scientist want to say man evolved from animal, but that Scripture states that is not so. We can see that God created different species only after there own "kind," that is the natural that comes first.
Gen 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creepers, and its beasts of the earth after its kind; and it was so.
v. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth after its kind, and cattle after their kind, and all creepers upon the earth after their kind. And God saw that it was good.
So mankind is the only creature that God made to be "Like" him in shape and form, but much more than that is man was made to have a relationship with God that none of the animals can ever have. This is the spiritual that comes later, only for man.
mercy, peace and love
Kat