What Did God Say?

Genesis 1:26-27 records a unique occurence in the Creation Story. Throughout the account of Creation to this point, God's creative powers have been used in exactly the same way. It was with His voice that God created. The powerful God of the universe needed to do nothing more than speak, and the earth, sky, and all creation came into being. The formula was the same, until verse 26.
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In verse 26, God moves from the "Let there be" formula, to a conversation, presumably with the other members of the Godhead. It is here, in verse 26, where God first establishes the difference between man, the crowning jewel of His creation, and the rest of creation. Rather than merely speaking humans into creation as He had done with all other things, God chooses a different route. "Let us make," He says, "man in our image." It was not good enough for humanity to be created in the same way as everything else, instead God chose to make human beings in a different way; He made humans in His image.
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Genesis 2:7 explains this difference for us. " Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being." God, in his infinite love, holiness, and knowledge, saw fit to make man with His own hands. The Bible says that God, the Great Creator, stepped from heaven to earth and made the very first human being from the dust of the ground. God did not stand back and watch His masterpiece take shape, God got His hands dirty so that we could have life. What an amazing God who would humble Himself to play in the mud for us. The same God who would later clothe Himself in flesh and hang from a cross. What a Savior!