This segment of a painting by Walter Rane reflects my
some of my thoughts on this parable, which is found in Matthew 1:13. In the
parable, ten virgins are waiting for a wedding feast, five of whom took extra
oil for their lamps (the wise virgins) and five of whom did not take extra oil
(the foolish virgins). The bridegroom did not come right away, and the virgins
slept. But at midnight, when the bridegroom came and the virgins needed to trim
their lamps, the five who had not adequately prepared were left with no light
but were begging for oil from those who had come prepared.
In the parable, it can seem that those who had come with
additional oil were insensitive to the needs of those unprepared. Why wouldn’t
they, or couldn’t, they share?
I have spent a great deal of time pondering the various
applications of the parable. The first application, one that I am NOT specifically
going to elaborate on in this post, has to do with the preparation for when the
Savior, Jesus Christ, returns to the earth at His second coming.
In this marvelous painting we can see a broader application.
One of the prepared women looks longingly back at those without oil. I feel
like she longs for the others to join her, perhaps even longs to be able to
share what she has, but she cannot. Obviously there are those without the oil who are imploring
for what they lack at the critical hour.
Some things cannot be transfused, simply because we want to
do so. There is no Mr. Spock, no Vulcan mind meld that transfers the
experience, the knowledge, the learning and understanding that have come
through actual first-hand experience. We can teach, we can influence, we can
impart of our knowledge, but we cannot fill the place of having actually been
there, of actually having experienced, of actually having gained the
inspiration or insight that firsthand experience might have brought.
On a spiritual level, I can long to share what I have gained
from years of scripture study, years of attending the temple, years of serving
in callings, years of facing and overcoming personal challenges…drops and drops
and drops of oil that I have gathered myself…but those are MY drops of oil,
gathered at a personal cost. I cannot precisely duplicate and transfer my
store. There were other insights to be gained for and by another who could have
gathered her own, had she chosen to do so.
The application goes to so many areas. No one else can
attend a meeting, conference or seminar and gather what I might have gathered
for myself, tailored to my needs, in my stead. No one else can do my
push-ups. No one else can eat my
carrots for me. No one else can do my
repenting, my changing, my growing. No one else can learn MY
lessons for me.
Again, this painting speaks so compellingly to me. We CAN
share our testimonies, we CAN give our
lives in the Lord’s service, but we CANNOT give to another what they will not
receive for themselves. Drops of oil. Drops of oil. Drops of oil. How precious
are those drops of oil that we gather, decision by decision, action by action,
faithfully day by day.