YOUR BIRTH PRIVILEGE
Do you realize the privilege you have in being alive on this earth today? The very fact that you were born and grew to maturity means that you can make the choice to go to heaven to live forever. Your life here on earth is not the end of everything when it ceases. It is only beginning of life forever with God in the surprise heaven that defies our greatest imagination in comprehending its beauty and detail.
Before Jesus went to the cross, He celebrated with His apostles the very last seder before becoming their Passover Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. After the meal, He taught the eleven men (Judas had already sneaked away to do his dirty work against the Son of God) about the Holy Spirit Whom He would send in His stead after He had ascended to heaven.
Of course, not knowing what we know in retrospect, the disciples were bewildered by that news and asked questions to try to make sense of what Jesus was telling them. In a way understood by them according to their customs, Jesus spoke like a groom taking temporary leave of His bride.
"Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going."
As was the custom in Jesus' day, the bride and groom became engaged, making covenant as binding as marriage and requiring divorce papers if ever they separated. Immediately after and before any wedding ceremony took place, the groom went back to his father's house to build living quarters for his new bride. He worked all year on it. Only his father could give the nod that it was perfect and finished enough for the new daughter-in-law. Then he would give the OK for his son to leave to bring back his bride.
With that knowledge in mind, Jesus had previously given His men the parable of the Ten Virgins. All were asleep waiting for the groom to come and get his bride, for whom they were ladies-in-waiting. When they heard the trumpet sound announcing the approach of the grooom (it was midnight and very dark without electricity and street lights!), the girls woke up and lighted the oil lamp each carried to light their way down the shrouded town streets.
Only five of the young women were adequately prepared to follow the groom back to his father's house, however. They had plenty of oil for their lamps, so could follow the path. The other five girls begged oil from their friends, only to be told there wasn't enough to spare and that they needed to buy oil for themselves.
While the five were away seeking their purchase, the groom appeared, snatched his bride and headed back to his father's house. By the time the oil buyers returned to the waiting place, they were too late and missed the opened door to the marriage supper. All of this points to Jesus' coming for the Church, His bride, soon to happen.
Yes, the object of Jesus' parable is to declare His great joy in looking forward to His coming for His bride to usher her into the heavenlies He has prepared for her and to enjoy the marriage supper of the Lamb!
Jesus wants as many people as will to come to His heavenly home. He doesn't want anyone to perish in a hell He created for fallen angels, the most evil of all being the devil himself. It has always been God's intention in sending Jesus to rescue lost humanity and transform them through the death and resurrection of Jesus, so they can spend eternity in heaven, not hell.
Do you realize that had our parents never come together, regardless of the circumstances being marriage or an illicit union, you and I would not exist at all? Before the foundation of the world God knew you and I would be conceived and He is pleased with what He sees. Even if you are not satisfied with your gender or color, or family circumstances, God is completely satisfied with who you are.
You are unique. No one else has ever been like you or ever will be. Somehow our parents shared with God the amazing formation of a human being who had a beginning, but will have no end. That fact is awesome in its responsibility and complexity. You or I could have been a wasted egg, but instead we were conceived by the man and woman we call father and mother. That is why they deserve our honor always, regardless of their failings and shortfalls. They gave us life that we would not have known otherswise. They made possible our never ceasing to live in heaven with God!
You and I will live forever. We shall never cease to be. That mystery having been bestowed on us, we must strive and labor to fulfill our responsibilities as a person in our relationship to God and Jesus, and to each other. All that is necessary to our claiming our rightful place in heaven someday. If we don't, we have no one to blame but ourselves. I have made that choice to follow Jesus with plenty of oil in my lamp. Have you?