Be Prepared

Are any of you in the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts? Even if you are not in the Scouts, you have probably heard their motto. Can anyone tell me what their motto is? You are right! The Scout motto is, "Be Prepared." That means that a good Scout must try to be prepared to handle anything that might happen. For example, when we went on a camping trip, we had to make sure that we had all of the equipment we would need -- like this lantern. If we were going to camp out over night, we would need a lantern to be able to see.

A lantern like this is not much good if you don't have fuel to put in it. So, not only did we have to remember to take our lantern, we also had to be sure we took enough fuel for our lantern. If we didn't have enough fuel for the lantern, we weren't very well prepared were we? Be Prepared -- that is a pretty good motto, don't you agree?

Jesus once told a story about ten bridesmaids who took their oil lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Jesus said that five of them were foolish because they had their lamps, but they didn't bring any extra oil to put in their lamps. When it was time to go out and meet the bridegroom, they were out of oil. The other five were very wise and well prepared. They had brought plenty of oil for their lamps. When it was time to go out and meet the bridegroom, they were ready.

In this story, the bridegroom is Jesus and you and I are the bridesmaids. The story is teaching us that one day we are going to go to meet Jesus. It teaches us that we must be prepared, because we don't know exactly when that time is coming. Do you know what we must do to be prepared? We must invite Jesus to come into our hearts. When we do that, we are ready!

Heavenly Father , one day we are going to meet you face to face. We pray that we will all be ready. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.