don’t even notice

Thursday November 13^th, Matthew 25:  1 "At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to wait for the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The five foolish bridesmaids took their lamps, but they did not take more oil for the lamps to burn. 4 The wise bridesmaids took their lamps and more oil in jars.  As we try to take this verse apart and look at it we are left with some questions. What is the oil? Is it faith? (which doesn’t make sense if it is a gift from God?)  Is it works? (you are in charge of your salvation, not God, so go buy some for yourselves?)  Or is it perhaps something less specific?  Is it perhaps the totality of our relationship with God and all that that entails, prayer, changed lives, good works, faith, Bible Study, awareness of Grace, worship, community, caring, Praising, Nurturing and Serving?  If so, then how does one let the oil run out?  As we take the grace of Reformation Sunday and run, we might want to stop and think about that.  Seldom do we dump the oil and go off to other things in life, all too often, we just get busy until we don’t even notice we are no longer even aware of the presence of God’s grace in our lives.