Thoughts on the Parable of the Ten Virgins

http://www.walterranefineart.com/figures

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.