It is not easy to come to terms with the death of Billy Graham.

It was not that his death was unexpected, far from it; Billy, aged 99, had suffered several ailments for many years. Indeed, in his last book, Nearing Home, he talked confidently and movingly about his impending death. 

Yet he had been such a major part of the Christian world for so long – I wasn’t even born when he held the first London ‘Crusade’ in 1954 – that it is hard to imagine him not being around. It is as if, visiting some familiar landscape, you find that the great tree that has always dominated it has been toppled.