Last Sunday I passed some young children gathering chestnuts, which was always a big thing this time of year when I was young. We would gather then to play the game of “conkers” in school, a yearly challenge which was taken very seriously. The chestnut plays a role in different traditions and cultures including in Italy where carrying one around in your pocket for winter was thought to prevent colds.

Seeing one of them on the ground reminded me of this passage and its message of trust.

And I saw a tiny thing, the size of a nut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked at it and thought: ‘What is this?’ And this is the answer that came to me: ‘It is all that is made.’ I marvelled how it could survive, it was so small that I thought that it might disintegrate. And in my mind I heard this answer: It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it.

In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it. The second that God loves it. And the third, that God keeps it.

Julian of Norwich c. 1342–c. 1416, Revelations