Man can be viewed as God's plaything.
The fact that he can turn to God is so amusing and even wonderful that God keeps him close–is mindful of him.
And because man is able to lift himself upward, against his own nature, in contrast to all the other creatures of the universe, he may be considered as participating in spiritual process.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From In the Beginning by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz