Now, in accordance with your desire, I shall write about man. But believe me, every time I think about man, I am filled with great wonder because of the kindness of God towards him; so that I exclaim with the psalmist:
"What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" (Ps 8:4, 144:3) In truth man is a wondrous being. All God's creation is wondrous, but man above all else. Wondrous is the divine providence concerning him: he is created, not as other beings, but by the special decree of the Holy Trinity:
"Let us make man to Our image and likeness" (Gen 1:26). Man is created to God's power, wisdom, and kindness; but man bears in addition God's image within himself. In truth, this is the greatest goodness, the most admirable beauty, the highest honor! Man is inferior to God, but he is above all other created things: man has been honored by God's image: beautiful are the skies, the sun, the moon and the stars, and all things made by God; but man is the most beautiful of all; for he bears within himself a beauty created to the image of God. Think and reflect on the beauty of God, Who is the Uncreated and Eternal Beauty! If God has so greatly honored man, all hell and all the devils, can do nothing to man. God is within him and his protector.
+St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, from The Letters, #7, in
A Treasury of Russian Spirituality, by George Fedotov.
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