Driving down a road in my neighborhood after dark in late October, I was shocked by a sight that forced me to turn around and take another look. The light of the room behind a window in a house made the silhouette I saw stand out rather oddly. Against a big, living room window, I saw the outline of a cat sprawled out across the window screen from top to bottom. The cat appeared to be hanging on to the screen by its paws, and it seemed its fur was standing on end in all directions. The sight of the spread eagle, terrified cat caught my attention.
My first reaction was to assume the disturbing silhouette was a Halloween decoration, for most of the houses in the neighborhood were adorned with a myriad of frightful trimmings: witches riding broomsticks, witches crashing into front doors, skeletons hanging from trees, decaying arms and legs reaching from the ground, tombstones near front doors, giant spider webs on siding, ghosts and goblins floating in yards, and the like. Naturally, my mind had to wonder if this very odd sight were just part of the Halloween décor. What were the chances that an actual pet cat was hanging for dear life to the screen of a window on the outside of a house? Would it not be much more likely that during the fall season this was part of someone’s “festive” Halloween practice?
I turned around because I wanted to be sure this was not an actual cat in danger. If it were, I wanted to help. Amazingly, as I drove past a second time, I saw a young girl reaching for a cat that was now halfway down the screen to the windowsill! A household cat really did – somehow – manage to get stuck outside the house on a large, second floor window. Strange as it was, that feline sprawled out and clinging for dear life was a real cat. Its fur really had been standing on end. It actually had been in danger.
I nearly discounted the danger because of the prevalence of Halloween decorations. During these few weeks in late October, I am so accustomed to odd and gruesome sights that I almost did not take an actual horrifying situation seriously.
Ephesians 5:11 says, “Have nothing to do with fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” I fear that we as Christians have grown too accustomed to comfort with sin. We are so willingly exposed to things with which we ought to have nothing to do. We regularly get too close to selfishness, greed, indecent television shows, graphic language, gossip, bitter hearts, godless philosophy, etc. Our refusal to obey Ephesians 5:11 has left us in a place where we are no longer horrified when we should be.
And so the enemy proceeds in slicing away at our vitality. Sometimes we Christians begin to think we are invincible. We are not. These fruitless deeds of darkness are in our own “spiritual neighborhood” – our houses, our hearts, our social circles. Prolonged exposure – which is, by the way, rebellion against God’s Word – leaves us confused and unable to react as we ought. Our “horror reflex” is not activated as it should be. Sin begins to creep in every corner, with all its nasty consequences.
Had I seen the spread eagle cat on the window screen in the month of April, I most likely would have never doubted the immediate danger the cat was in. It was the proliferation of appalling sights at Halloween that made me hesitate.
Dear Lord, please keep me far from fruitless deeds of darkness. May I be so accustomed to Your light and Your truth – and so uncomfortable with sin in and around my life – that I react quickly to the horror rebellion against You brings.