¹Jesus continued, ‘Then, the sovereign reign of God in heaven will be like ten girls who were bridesmaids at a wedding. One of their duties was to accompany the bridegroom to meet the bride. In order to do that, they took their torches and went out to meet the bridegroom. ²Five of the girls were sensible but five were stupid. ³I say this because the stupid girls took their torches, but didn’t take any oil with them to light the torches. ⁴The sensible girls, however, were prepared and took flasks of oil together with their torches. ⁵The bridegroom was delayed unexpectedly and took a long time to come, so all the girls became drowsy and fell asleep.

⁶‘At midnight a shout went up, “Look, the bridegroom’s here now! Come out and meet him!”

⁷‘Then all the girls woke up and lit their torches. ⁸The stupid girls said to the sensible ones, “Our torches are running out of oil. Give us some of your oil, because our torches are going out.”

⁹‘But the sensible girls answered, “If we give you some of our oil, there won’t be enough for both us and you. Each of us must take responsibility for being prepared; we can’t transfer what we’ve got. Instead, go to the all-night shop and buy some oil for yourselves.”

¹⁰‘While the stupid girls were on their way to buy oil from the shop, the bridegroom arrived. The girls who were ready went with him to the wedding banquet … and the door was firmly shut.

¹¹‘The other girls arrived later and said, “Please sir, open the door for us!”

¹²‘But he replied, “I assure you, I don’t know you. I don’t recognize you. You’re too late to come to the banquet.”’ The two groups of girls were separated. Those who were prepared enjoyed the banquet, but those who weren’t prepared were excluded from the banquet, with no further opportunity to join in.’

¹³Jesus concluded, ‘So be constantly ready. Remain alert, because you don’t know the day or the hour when the Son of Man will return.’

Matthew 25:1-13

Key Thought: What opportunities do you need to take hold of today?