We are created in God’s own image. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Gen. 1:26) Never has so much been packed into one phrase. To bear his image is to be like him and have the capacity to grow in a relationship with him. Nearness, after all, is useless if there is not a similarity of one to the other. We can enjoy the presence of a dog or a cat, and pets can sometimes touch our loneliness, but a pet can’t replace someone of our own kind. Animals,