The passing of a close family member or close friend is often a time for reflection, and the passing of a young life is even more poignant. On Sunday, at the age of just 27, reality television star Jade Goody lost her courageous and public battle against cervical cancer.

At times like this, we are reminded, if we care to listen, of our own mortality, our weakness and our fragility as human beings. We should also be mindful that we live on an earth and in a universe that, despite its power and magnitude, is almost as fragile as we are. It is a certainty that one day it will all end. It is a scientific fact that one day the sun will turn supernova and usurp our whole solar system. Our universe, still ever expanding, will eventually implode.

Just as our own lives will end, so will everything around us. Everything that we are, and everything that we know, is united in hurtling towards our ultimate, common goal: an end. Of that there is no doubt.

What will count at this time is how we lived our lives.

Will it be as the meteor that enters our earth's atmosphere, burning brightly in the night sky as a wonder for all to see? Or will we succumb to the limitations of our own surroundings, of our environment, of our society, and live as others do?

Each one of us was born unique; a one-off. Sure, we may be made of the same stuff and look similar to others, but each one of us is unique. Each one of us is nothing like the Creator has ever created before or will ever do again. Our potential is ours alone.

Each one of us has the potential to shine brightly, to change those around us, or to make a difference to those yet to come. We can choose to destroy a colony of ants, or protect a species from extinction. We can choose to learn from our mistakes, or be bound to repeat them forever. We can choose to bring the darkness of ignorance upon this earth, or we can choose to pierce it with the light of knowledge.

A few years ago, the Hubble Space Telescope was programmed to take 300 photographs of an area of the night sky no bigger than a grain of sand. The purpose behind taking so many photographs was to capture as much light as possible from that area.

When they put the 300 photographs that they had collected together, they found 3,000 galaxies.

Each galaxy had between one billion and 100bn stars like our own sun, and all in an area no bigger than a grain of sand.

Imagine what kind of wonders are yet to be found in the rest of the sky.

It reminds me of a verse in the Koran, where God says "not for nothing did I create all this".

While death may remind us of our own limitations, it is, in fact, in the creation of the heavens and the earth that we are surely reminded of our tremendous potential to "be".

Jade Goody was an ordinary person, but she was not created for nothing. She was thrust into the limelight by a simple reality television show – Big Brother. She chose to use the example of her own experience to remind women about doing something as simple as taking a smear test. In doing so, she has potentially saved many lives. She burned brightly.

You also are not created for nothing.