A Place for God by Graham James

Author:Graham James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

21

Victoria Falls

Genesis 9.8–17

Following a reading of Genesis 9.8–17 about the promise of a rainbow, a preacher began his sermon with a series of questions. He asked why rainbows had inspired so many songs, and what lay beyond these great bows in the sky. He almost burst into song as he described rainbows first as visions and then illusions with nothing to hide.

His words seemed both intriguing and vaguely familiar. I had not placed them until he declared they were the reflections of a great contemporary philosopher called Kermit the Frog. He had been quoting ‘The Rainbow Connection’ from The Muppet Movie. This caused much mirth in the congregation.

The preacher then moved on but I became distracted in the sermon (bishops suffer from this tendency quite as much as other Christians). The mention of rainbows, illusions, visions and the fact they have ‘nothing to hide’ took me back to an unforgettable experience on my one and only visit to Victoria Falls. A walk through the rainforest there found me looking at rainbows dancing around my feet as well as observing the power and the beauty of the largest waterfall in the world. The sun, the spray, the vegetation, the power of the water, the colours of the refracted light: there was something elemental about it all. Although I realized the multicoloured rainbows above and around me were all the result of drops of water capturing the light of the sun, that scientific explanation didn’t describe why I felt so connected with this rainbow experience. There was a Rainbow Connection, as Kermit the philosopher would put it. Or, perhaps, if we want a more established poet, then William Wordsworth comes to our aid.

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began;

So it is now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!

The Child is father of the Man;

And I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

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