There they were in Israel trying to change the course of nature which, according to Sky News had become biblical in its form and effect. There is a seven year drought and we all know that plagues, pestilences, floods and the like go in seven year cycles in the Old Testament. God might work in mysterious ways but His ready reckoner tends to get stuck on seven.

They who had got together to seek God’s intervention were spiritual leaders of the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims. Joint prayer. The paradoxical element of this is that there is widespread belief among adherents to different faiths that the God of each is not necessarily the same God. Otherwise why would Muslims and Jews be in a death conflict, or Christians and Muslims? Or are they saying that it is the same God but each road has different scenery and they are fighting over the view out of the window?

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a God? We’d all be happy and in harmony. But we don’t really believe it, or we stop the bloodshed immediately.

If there is a God then I doubt He bothers too much about people praying and genuflecting to Him. A bit demeaning to His intelligence, don’t you think? What kind of Being finds His ego inflated by men and women on their knees? Hardly an all-seeing, all-knowing, loving God!

But there they stood on the dusty terrain, hedging their bets as they allowed each in turn to invoke the rain through God, whomever had the most scenic route to Him.