As promised, here's the answer to Stu's question:

If man is made in God’s image and man is imperfect, is God imperfect?

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created man
in his own image,
in the image of God
he created him;
male and female
he created them.”
[Genesis 1.26-27]

So, man was created in God’s likeness and image, these two words have similar meanings, but image includes characteristics like holiness and righteousness. It isn’t so much that we look like God, physically, more that we are similar to Him in our ability to think, learn, understand, develop – things that we can do far better than apes, insects, birds and so on.

Imagine a world where nothing causes embarrassment, where you can say anything, do anything and be anyone you want without having to worry about other people’s criticism. Well, that’s what life was like in the Garden of Eden: Adam and Eve could strut around in the nude without any shame or self-consciousness. Why? Because they were innocent, righteous and in the image of God.

Then the serpent comes along, the sneaky, crafty Devil in snake’s clothing. He twists the truth, blatantly denies God’s instructions (not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil), and tricks Adam and Eve into taking a bite from the fruit.

This is the point in the Bible where things go horribly wrong: if Adam had said to Eve “no thanks love, I don’t want any fruit right now,” we might never have introduced sin into our world and we would all be enjoying life in Eden. Eden, where there was no need to work hard to grow food, where no-one would have to suffer in childbirth, and where we could be whoever we wanted without feeling ashamed.

But they did eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and suddenly they knew what shame and fear and suffering were, they knew that being naked could be embarrassing, and so they hid from God (after a quick bit of sewing to make fig leaf undies!). They were no longer protected from the terrors of the world, and the rest of the Bible story charts man’s attempts (and failures) to get back to that state of innocence.

So what we’re really saying is, man and woman were created in the likeness of God, but that by their own actions – by not following God’s simple instructions – they made themselves less like God. We all start out perfect – I know this every time I look at Faith Emma Jane – but eventually we begin making our own choices, and these take us further and further away from God.

The next question to be answered is a doozie:

How do you get people to like you?

Might take a while to answer that one...

All comments welcome.