All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 14 Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. 15 If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. 16 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (New Living Translation).

In an article for ‘the Spectator’ entitled: ‘Now I’m 64: my tips for aging’, Julie Burchill quoted the philosopher Camus who said, ‘In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.’ I think many Christians will identify with this, even though they may find themselves in the ‘winter’ season of life.

I clearly remember one Friday, just a few years ago, when I was visiting Studley Royal, a beautiful deer park next to Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire. Although I don’t normally tend to be this way, on that morning I was for some reason feeling a bit down about getting older, and maybe just a little depressed at the thought of death.

Then I went into your sanctuary, O God… (Psalm 73:17).

We went inside the beautiful church building at Studley and I saw something there that spoke to me of heaven. I can’t remember exactly what it was. I believe it may have been a verses from one of the the psalms. But it brightly illuminated the gloom within, and I left that church with an altered perspective. The ‘invincible summer’ broke through into my wintry thoughts and feelings.

I believe God wants all who trust in Jesus for salvation to know – to know deeply – that there is nothing to fear. Jesus always keeps the ”best” wine until last (John 2:10).

(By the way, it was Albert Camus who said, ”I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live as if there isn’t and die to find there is.” Now there’s a thought!)