God knows our past, present and future – and loves us always

HOW old do you feel? 23 but your date of birth says 63, or 50 but feeling 70?

- Phil Williams

Recently, I went to the Theatre Royal to watch Blood Brothers. In the first half, the adult actors were seven-year-old children, then teenagers and finally became adults in the second half.

As a set text for GSCE, the theatre audience included secondary school students and their teachers laughing at the onstage behaviour of the characters, along with the silver-haired brigade, like me.

This summer I have been especially conscious of the passage of time as I've been sorting through my late parents' belongings.

There were so many of their photo albums that reminded me of anniversaries, holidays and significant events. As I flicked through the albums, wondering what to keep, I watched my parents grow older from one album to the next.