No Photo

No photo, but the image is emblazoned in my mind. As I came up the road yesterday afternoon, half the sky was grey/black, and the other clear blue. The rain started to fall.

Rising up from the earth was a pointed shaft of rainbow, looking like a neon Excalibur. As I drove, I saw this vibrant point extend and grow into a complete arc. The colours were so vivid that they echoed in the sky: a double rainbow. 

It was breath-taking and I kept thinking I should stop and take a picture. But the road was twisty, the rain was falling, and instead, I just drank it in.

A friend recently returned from seeing wild animals in South Africa said that he didn’t take that many pictures, because when you’re behind the camera you miss the rich array of what else is going on. How true.

When something is stunning, we want to hold on to it. We want to capture it and relive it later. We want to share it so others can experience the wonder we feel. Even the best photo, though, doesn’t do justice to the experience.

Sometimes we need to just receive. Yesterday’s double rainbow read like a love letter from God to me. Never mind he was sending the same love letter to all who looked up at the sky. There was an intimacy in the encounter which would have been lost had I stressed about finding a safe place to stop and being careful not to get the phone wet in the rain.

Enjoy the moment. It’s a glorious autumn day here in the northeast, and I get to drive south for an hour to look after a precious grandson for the afternoon. I’ll be on the lookout for more rainbows, but if none appear, I’ve got yesterday’s stored in my cache.

Happy Monday.