Work hard so you deserve it. This is the world’s concept of Rest. Earn more so you can sleep better. Acquire everything so you can be at peace. The way it’s presented to us, rest seems so noisy, so full of stuff. You can’t rest without this expensive orthopedic pillow. Your self-care is incomplete without this 150-step skincare regimen. Are you really resting if it’s not in this uber-exclusive resort with 360 views of the ocean?

I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise; we are a capitalist society after all. Every day we are told to consume, consume, consume, and then when you feel like you’ve had enough, no you haven’t. Consume some more. In that same vein, we are also constantly told that our bodies are in dire need of some improvement. Your nose isn’t slim enough, your eyes are too far apart, your hair is way too curly. Even parts of you that you barely ever see – your armpits, your vagina, your butt, the back of your damn neck – they’re all not good enough. Improve them, change them, remove them. These billboards, these ads, what people choose to comment on, they’re always telling us we are not good enough. We don’t have enough or do enough. Never enough.

I wonder then, how God must feel about all of this. Take a moment to try and imagine that day in the Garden of Eden, when a creative and gentle God decided to form us from His very image. I imagine the care and the tenderness of how every single cell was carved out, how every strand of hair was woven into reality. How love was poured into every pore of Adam’s being, until God’s own breath filled those empty lungs with life. What must it have been like, to wake up and come face to face with such holiness? To be surrounded with the beauty that is an untouched earth? The very breath that was just given must have been immediately taken away from the sight of that wonder. What I would give to have seen that day.

Science tells us that we are made up of the same elements as stars. They generate carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorus – all the things that make up our DNA. And they say that those early stars exploded into a beautiful cacophony that released these elements into the cosmos, and created what would eventually become life. A beautiful, albeit violent death of a stellar body birthed life into the rest of the universe. Whatever those stars were made of, make us as well. Science literally tells us that we are made of stardust. It is equally as beautiful and breathtaking to think about.

For me, science doesn’t debunk my faith, but informs it. I believe there very much could have been a Big Bang, and it took place when God said the words “let there be light”.

And then God gave us just one job – take care of it all. Take a look at all the beautiful things provided for you, tend to the garden, hang out with the animals and give them names. He didn’t tell us to acquire, or make more, or expand – We were given the missive to enjoy what we were given. So much of our beginning was created from a place of rest, that the one other command was to NOT do something. As we know, we failed miserably at that and we find ourselves here, today, doing the exact opposite of what we were made for.

The next time we look at our lives or ourselves and find that we are lacking, it would do us good to remember what we are made of, what we were made for, and Who we were made by. God didn’t even give Adam and Eve clothes, and I’d like to think it’s because He didn’t want us to focus on anything that is on us, but to keep our eyes on what was around us. Keep that in mind next time you’re unnecessarily stressing out about your daily OOTD.

So while you’re here, while you’re solid and tangible and earth-bound, remember to rest. Rest your body, rest your mind, rest your spirit. One day, we will return to the earth, and all that stardust will go back out into the universe. All of us part of a cosmic design that can never be destroyed, but will be transformed. Until then, rest.