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What are human beings? How we answer this question, although seemingly basic on the surface, informs so much of what we believe about our identity. Anthropology, or the doctrine of man, is found throughout scripture. As believers, we must have a firm understanding of who we are and what it means for us. Psalm 8 says, “When I observe your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place, what is a human being that you remember him, a son of man that you look after him?” In Psalm 144, David asks, “LORD, what is a human that you care for him, a son of man that you think of him?” And in Job 7 he asks, “What is a mere human, that you think so highly of him and pay so much attention to him?” Although the context of these passages are different, the answer to the question–at least in part–is the same. For example, Job acknowledges that God thinks highly of him and pays him much attention (Job 7:17). Similarly, the Psalmist declares that God remembers and looks after him. And in 8:5-6 we see that people are slightly lower than angels, crowned with glory and honor, and rulers of God’s creation. But at the same time, we see in both Psalm 8 and 144 that we are mortals, that we are like a breath; our days are like a fleeting shadow. And so, like all other animals, humans have life, breath, and mortal bodies. BUT, unlike any other created being, humans are created in the image of God and for a relationship with God and others. Genesis 1:26-27 states, “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.” It is clear where our identity is found. But what does this mean for us today? One of the chief questions that anyone can ask is: “Who am I?”God tells us in his word that we are living creatures made by God to bear his own image. This image of God is seen in our moral and spiritual nature, in our shared love within community, in our dominion on God’s behalf, and especially in our calling to communion with God. There is nothing that could give us greater dignity–no status, no position, no family, no nation–than to realize that we are creatures designed to know and be known by our Creator. “..take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of truth.” (Ephesians 4:22-24)