"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived."
Matthew 25:10 (NIV)
Six words carry the full weight of this verse. The door did not close because the virgins were defiant or indifferent. It closed while they were moving toward what they should have already had. The last moment passed before any of them knew it had come.
The detail Matthew preserves here is the cruelest kind of almost. They heard the cry, felt the urgency, and moved toward the solution. But intention in motion is not the same as oil already burning. The bridegroom arrived, the ready ones entered, and then the door shut.
Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 6:2 land with exactly the same force. He is describing a window that is open right now. That window will not remain open at every future moment without limit. The oil is always tended in the ordinary day, not at the moment of crisis.
Most of us have something we have been meaning to bring to God. We keep postponing because tomorrow always seems more available than today. We have noticed the drift in ourselves but have not named it out loud. The five foolish virgins were simply people who ran out of tomorrow.
Look honestly at what you are treating as a later conversation with God. Not to produce fear, but to receive the mercy Paul is describing. You are reading this on the right side of the still-open door. The Bridegroom meets you in the honest bringing of what you actually have.
Godseekers, the door in this parable is not yet shut. That is not a loophole to file away for use another day. It is the mercy of a Bridegroom who wants you at the feast. What you keep meaning to bring to Him, bring it today.
Prayer
Living God, we are honest with You today about the weight of what we have been putting off. Some of us have been meaning to draw closer and have let weeks become months without doing it. We are not giving up on that. We turn toward You now, with whatever we actually have, trusting that You are close enough to be found. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Personal Reflection
- What specific aspect of your relationship with Christ have you been intending to tend later, and what would it look like to begin that today instead?
- What posture toward spiritual readiness do you want the next generation in your family or church to inherit from watching how you live now?
Step of Faith
Today, revisit one prayer you stopped praying, one that felt unanswered or too heavy to keep carrying. Pray it again, out loud, and leave it with the Bridegroom who is still present and still near.
