Of the ten virgins, five were wise and brought extra oil for their lamps, and five were foolish and did not bring extra oil for their lamps. The virgins all fell asleep; then at midnight the bridegroom came to invite them into the wedding. Since it was so late, the oil had run out and the foolish virgins didn’t have any extra oil. They asked the wise virgins to give them some of their extra oil, but the wise virgins told them that if they shared their oil, there wouldn’t be enough for anyone to make it to the wedding. So, only the five wise virgins attended the wedding.

At first glance, some might thing the 5 wise virgins were very stingy in not sharing their oil. But this is not so. The oil really refers to spiritual preparation. Spiritual preparation can not be shared. Here’s a simple way to think of it; let’s say there was an exam at school and half the class prepared for the exam, and the other half of the class didn’t prepare for the exam. At the time of the test, there would be no way that the prepared part of the class could share their knowledge with the unprepared part of the class without cheating, and unfortunately for the unprepared part of the class, cheating is not an option in our scenario. So, the question is, how can we prepare for the bridegroom, or in other words the second coming of Jesus Christ? How can we build a reserve of extra oil for our lamps? We can pray regularly to God. We can study our scriptures daily. We can do good to others, be honest and strive to serve others. All of these things will prepare us for the second coming of Jesus Christ, so we won’t be left out of the presence of our Lord as the foolish virgins were.