The mouse crouched under a loose board, perfectly still except for its wriggling nose and twitching whiskers. Eliezer the cat crouched equally motionless, mostly hidden behind a toolbox. His keen ears and his uplifted nose told him exactly where the mouse was. His haunches were coiled like springs, ready to launch in an instant. One misstep on the part of the mouse, and it would become his breakfast.  

If the mouse had known cat language, he might have tried to work out a compromise with Eliezer. Would there not be benefit in living together in peace? He could ride on Eliezer’s shoulders and scratch him behind the ears. Surely that would feel good to the big cat. The mouse could even keep a sharp lookout for fleas, snapping them up with his sharp little teeth. On the other hand, Eliezer’s thick fur would keep the mouse warm.  

However, Eliezer believed mice were to be eaten, and he was uncompromising on this point. No mouse had ever yet been able to talk him into letting it go. The cat was the mouse’s enemy, and there was no middle ground* between them.  

Believers face an enemy far more formidable than the cat is to the mouse. Our enemy is uncompromising, vicious, and subtle. Far too many people have been seduced into seeking a middle ground with Satan. He tries to appear accommodating, but in truth, he desires nothing more than their eternal destruction.  

There is no middle ground between God and Satan. One can never live in harmony with both. To seek a middle ground is to be estranged from God and within the grasp of Satan; and no one has ever yet talked Satan into releasing his catch.  

There are two ways in this our day, one narrow and the other wide; 
Who follows now the narrow way, will be despised on every side.  

—adapted from the Ausbund 

 *Middle ground is a compromise between two extremes.  

From Paws on My Porch, by Gary Miller
© 2015 TGS International, PO Box 355, Berlin, Ohio 44610
Used by permission