Nevertheless, autumn is not the end. It is a time of new beginnings for many: a new academic challenge; or a new direction and new friends. I see some new shoots poking through in the garden; and in the southern hemisphere there is the arrival of spring. Turning a well known phrase on its head ‘In the midst of death we are in life’ emphasises that creation never ceases.

When the biblical writers consider Creation they do not see it as a one-off event, some odd seven-day wonder. Autumn is as much God’s creation as is spring because God is always present, essential, in this marvellous work. God enables it, and each and every moment is a new creation because it is God’s will that it be so. When the Celtic saints considered Creation they understood it to be a rhythm and they rooted their spirituality firmly in the passage of both the seasons and human life.

So if autumn is a new creation, then winter also; and my wrinkles are a new creation just as much as was my conception and my birth – and, in time, my death. This is not to be morbid, it is to see that God is at work always, in all things, at all times, because without God there would be nothing at all. Sometimes it is difficult to accept the changes that the rhythm brings. Sometimes, especially as the nights draw in, we may morn what was; and sometimes, especially when the loss of loved ones is involved, we must. But as the rhythm unfolds one thing is certain – God never changes and God is almighty who loves you, upholds you, and eternally creates you.

Written for St Peter's, Belper