‘My grandfather was a Baptist minister. His core message was that God was our rock. I didn’t hear him preach, but that was the language that I grew up with.

‘When you get older and things are less straightforward and storms come, Psalm 18.2 is the verse that I would go back to. It says, “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress and my deliverer: my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”

‘During the pandemic, my parents died. We were very fortunate to have them until they were in their nineties. They lived very long lives, but you get used to having them all the time. You don’t believe it’s going to end. You can’t get hold of the idea that they are not here. They were lovely people.

‘I understood that we come and go, and God is there for ever and for all time. That foundation of the world, that rock on which we stand, if that doesn’t shake, then we can be reassured by that everlasting presence.

‘When people die, everything shifts, but everyone experiences this. During Covid, the whole country, the whole world was out of sync. All the certainties of life were out of bounds, and we didn’t know what we were doing.

‘People who were bereaved during a time of national desperation found this shaking even more pertinently. It was even more destabilising. These words from Psalm 18 became more significant.’

Do you have a story to share? Email mybible@biblesociety.org.uk

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