On the Incarnation, No. 2

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness ..
And God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them...
The LORD God formed man of dust from the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
and man became a living being.
Genesis 1:1, 26-27: 2:7

By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God,
so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.
Hebrews 11:3

Note: This month's posts will also include excerpted text from St. Athanasius's work, On the Incarnation.

"... From it [the divine teaching of the Christian faith] we know that, because there is Mind behind the universe, it did not originate itself; because God is infinite, not finite, it was not made from pre-existent matter, but out of nothing and out of non-existence absolute and utter God brought it into being through the Word ... For God is good—or rather, of all goodness He is Fountainhead, and it is impossible for one who is good to be mean or grudging about anything. Grudging existence to none therefore, He made all things out of nothing through His own Word, our Lord Jesus Christ and of all these His earthly creatures He reserved especial mercy for the race of men. Upon them, therefore, upon men who, as animals, were essentially impermanent, He bestowed a grace which other creatures lacked—namely the impress of His own Image, a share in the reasonable being of the very Word Himself, so that, reflecting Him and themselves becoming reasonable and expressing the Mind of God even as He does, though in limited degree they might continue for ever in the blessed and only true life of the saints in paradise..."