We are Stardust!

Have you ever wondered, Why me God? Why is my life so good? Why do bad things seem to follow me around? Why did you put breath in me? What is the meaning of life? In a universe so vast how can God hear my prayer?

William Burger in Perfect Planet, Clever Species: How Unique Are We? writes,

…it is only in an “older” universe that complex life forms can come into being. Based on the analysis of minute grains found associated with meteorites, Armand Delsemme suggests that our solar system was enriched by “at least four different stars. A star rich in carbon. A star rich in oxygen, a star rich in magnesium and silicon, and a star rich in iron.” Clearly, our glorious star was generously endowed with the materials needed to build living things. Together with a liquid medium such as water, complex life-forms built largely by the common and versatile carbon atom also require a variety of heavy elements to act as the energy centers of their most critical enzymes… Humankind is the product of that history; hydrogen, the original stuff of the universe, makes up about 8 percent of our body weight – all the rest of us is stardust.

We are stardust! All of the living things on this earth are a product of the elements Burger describes. When things that were very different from one another, things that had different characteristics, different goals, and different properties came together, something new and beautiful was brought into being. Various materials along with energy and a “liquid medium,” went into our origins, and they might very well not have seemed to “belong” together. But look at the product!

Look at yourself! There are times you may not feel like you fit into this world as you seek for meaning and purpose. But, even science shows us how connected we are to all of creation and to one another. You are a beautiful, unexplainable, gift of God’s! Is there something more we’re searching for?