This past winter we had an unprecedented ice/snow event in Texas. It. Was. Cold. We are not built for weather like this. We the people nor our structures. Everything broke. We lost power, our pipes burst. We thought we were prepared. I watched customer after customer come into our little general store with pieces of PVC cut from their homes and witnessed my pipe fitter turned store keeper father in law, fit them a new joint of pipe and pvc fittings to fix their busted leak. They all said the same thing, “I thought I had this insulated well enough” or “this has never happened before”. We were not as prepared as we should have been simply because we didn’t know how.

But it made me think about preparing. And the parable of the virgins. Matthew 25:1-13

At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

2 Five of the virgins were foolish, and five were wise.

3 When the foolish ones took their lamps, they did not take extra olive oil with them.

4 But the wise ones took flasks of olive oil with their lamps.

5 When the bridegroom was delayed a long time, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

6 But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom is here! Come out to meet him.’

7 Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.

8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’

9 ‘No,’ they replied. ‘There won’t be enough for you and for us. Go instead to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

10 But while they had gone to buy it, the bridegroom arrived, and those who were ready went inside with him to the wedding banquet. Then the door was shut.

11 Later, the other virgins came too, saying, ‘Lord, lord! Let us in!’

12 But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I do not know you!’

13 Therefore stay alert, because you do not know the day or the hour.

2 Peter 3:10 tells us:

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; when it comes, the heavens will disappear with a horrific noise, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze, and the earth and every deed done on it will be laid bare.

We must always be prepared! Because we don’t know the hour of the Lord’s return. Are we teaching others? Are we sharing Jesus with as many people as we can possibly can?