Over the last several decades, Jan and I have done quite a bit of traveling. We have traveled to 50 nations in total. Most of our travel was for ministry assignments. During that level of travel, we learned something important about preparing to travel.

We packed two days early, the day before the day before our actual day of travel. That discovery lessened our stress of packing and allowed us to be rested, not hurried, on the day of our departure. It also offered us a buffer to discover anything we may have missed in our packing.

The parable of the ten bridesmaids tells us what it means to not be prepared to meet the bridegroom. “All the bridesmaids got up and prepared their lamps. Then the five foolish ones asked the others, ‘Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’” (Matthew 25:7-8 8). The foolish bridesmaids were invited to the wedding ceremony, but they were unprepared to take part in the ceremony.

The parable continues revealing a sad truth about not living a prepared life and the consequence of that choice, “But while they were gone to buy oil, the bridegroom came. Then those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was locked. Later, when the other five bridesmaids returned, they stood outside, calling, ‘Lord! Lord! Open the door for us!’ “But he called back, ‘Believe me, I don’t know you!”’ (vs. 10-12).

Everything we do in this life is part of our preparation to someday meet the Lord when He returns. Our preparation is serious spiritual business. So much of our lives can be wasted on unimportant things if we live a life that lacks that kind of preparation.

Our preparation to meet the Lord will cause the Lord to someday say to us, “I know you. Come in and enjoy the marriage feast I have prepared for you.”

We should be preparing our lives to hear those words from the Lord. Waiting to hear those words should cause us to take our spiritual preparation seriously and not settle for a life that is an empty lamp, thinking that kind of life is acceptable and will someday be excused by the Lord. How we prepare our lives matters to the Lord, and it should matter to us as well.