“Oh, Lord, I want to go into the full time ministry, I want to minister to people, I want to teach those women younger than me about you. Like it says in Titus 2:3-4;
"Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."
“I want, Lord, to share with them all you have shared with me! There are so many spouses left behind, Lord, and they need you to carry them like you have carried me! I want a cool picture to show them, just like this woman teacher just showed us!” I continued singing wondering what would be my story. Would I have just one or would their be multiples? The more I learned from these older women the more I realized that there is generally more than one adventure so that our myriad of adventures could be used to minister to multitudes of people walking a similar walk. You know when you are telling someone your trouble and they say,
“Oh, I have been there, it was so hard, I bet it is huge for you!” There is something in me that lightens! What? A sister who has walked a similar road! Then the sister in Christ begins to regale me with stories of how the Lord walked/carried her through it! We have our trials for a myriad of reasons, but to comfort a sister, what a privilege, what a joy! That was when it happened.
“You waited for Mark the first time, not knowing when you would get to marry him and live with him, for years!” I did, in fact it was four years that I waited, abated breath for my bridegroom to come to me. We were both in the military and did not want to marry after only a month long beautiful courtship so we prayed that God would keep our hearts together and bring us physically together some day and we prayed that for the next four years! When in the miraculous way God works Mark got orders to be at the same base I was. Mark wasted no time proposing and we were married! For the first time as I relived these memories the 10 Virgins parable made so much sense to me!
The Parable of the Ten Virgins
Mt 25:1 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps fand went out to meet the bridegroom.
Mt 25:2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise.
Mt 25:3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them.
Mt 25:4 The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.
Mt 25:5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
Mt 25:6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
Mt 25:7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.
Mt 25:8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
Mt 25:9 “ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
Mt 25:10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
Mt 25:11 “Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’
Mt 25:12 “But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’
Mt 25:13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour
The Holy Bible, New International Version. Pradis CD-ROM:Mt 25:1.
Please see Chuck Smith's commentary on this parable at: http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/chuck_smith_c2000/Mat/Mat025.html
I thought what if during those four years I had not run to the Lord for more oil. When I said,
“God, I know that for me you have Mark, he is my one, or it is no one? It is either Mark or I am to walk this walk alone. Is it no one, Lord, we have been waiting many years?” God would say, “Wait.” He is a God of no wasted words that is for sure. So I waited, like the virgins with the lamps I started “saving” money, which to my young self meant not being in debt. I found a nice rental house ostensibly to get a dog, I had no idea that I was preparing for my groom! I got a wee car built for two, okay maybe three and if it was the right four people four, but that is it! Then by a miracle the day came, I got a phone call. It was a rare gift because on the other end of the line was the voice that I loved to hear any time it sounded. Due to Mark being deployed a lot phone calls seldom occurred;
“Danita?”
“Hello, yes!”
“This is Mark, I’ve been trying to reach you for days!”
“Oh, sorry, I’ve been out and about with the baby bro, what’s up?”
“I’ve got orders, I’m coming to you!” The world ceased to spin, my heart beat but it seemed to do it miles away and all I could hear was my breath going in and out. Stars seemed to collide in that moment and I said,
“Really!” And that was all I got out before the tear ducts burst forth their bounty and I became what I like to call blubbering.
The groom was coming, it was time to fill the oil, but what if I had not been prepared. What if I had given up and settled for less, settled for a lie, someone less! What if I had run out of oil!!!! I would never have had the joy of that moment! It is like those who decide that they aren’t going to believe in Jesus unless He walks up to them in bodily form and says, “Hiya, I’m the Messiah.” The Pharisees and the Sadducees said that and they never believed because they were not prepared to see Him the way He actually came. They knew that He was coming, He had been prophesied, they even knew the year, but they missed Him because they picked something less, they wanted power and saving from Rome, they weren’t thinking about their soul and the pit of Hell! So they picked someone else, they picked Barabbas, a murderer and zealot. They had trimmed their wick(their actions, they looked holy) but they had no oil(their hearts chased another). I said,
“God, thank you so much for showing me all this! How amazing, what a beautiful picture.” My Lord Jesus was being made even more real to me through my husband. Not only in the beauty of our marriage, in the freedom and grace, in how Mark loves me so unconditionally and supports me so freely in all my dreams. No, the Lord planned to use Mark to show me even more of Himself and to draw me into an even deeper love relationship with Jesus! How amazing!
Posts
