One murky morning recently when I was out as the sun got up, as warmth developed so the mist thickened into fog as it sometimes does when conditions are right. Walking round the corner of a hedgerow I caught sight of the silhouette of a small herd of deer. I can see seven in the picture but there may be more. The air was still, so they did not hear or see me and run off as quickly as would usually have been the case.
The benefit of the poor visibility for me was seeing more closely than usual a bunch of nervous animals. The disadvantage for the deer was of having their early warning system suppressed and their risk level raised.
In the passage from the Sermon on The Mount set for today, (Matthew 6:22-24) Jesus uses the illustration of the eye being the lamp for the body. If the eye works properly the body is full of light. Sometimes the light is obscured by external factors. For the deer, their reduced sensitivity came about because of the foggy gloom around them, not their own misty eyes.
Jesus goes on to teach about priorities and influencing factors being important. He says it is not possible to be equally committed to twin priorities. It is easy for us to become so caught up in all that goes on around us, that the fog of busyness suppresses our awareness of the risk of danger from all the things that are bad for us, from our own wrong choices through to what others may do.
The deer would not normally have taken the risk of being so close to a footpath without being alert. How often do we take risks because we are too busy and not seeing clearly, starting with the risk of minimising our time with God each day?
A prayer
Lord, there are many things that distract me. My thinking and my praying are interrupted by external sights and sounds, and by thoughts from within. Jesus, who went alone to pray, help us who need safe spaces to find ways of preserving time and space for you. Amen.