Timeline

Babies!  It seems everyone is having babies!  At least a lot of my young friends on Facebook (or the daughters of friends), are welcoming little blessings into their families.  We even have a recent blessed event in our own family, with the arrival of baby Isaac to our son and daughter-in-law.  What joy heralds a baby's birth! He has been expected for nine long months, yet no one knows exactly when he will come (except in the case of the doctor's intervention.)

We have been examining the parables in our Wednesday night Bible study.  Last night we looked at the story of the 10 virgins, five wise and five foolish.  Put in the setting of ancient wedding customs, the scenario is that the bridesmaids knew the bridegroom's appearance was imminent, but they didn't know exactly when it would be.  Five stayed alert and kept their lamps trimmed so as not to miss the wedding feast, but the other five let their lights go out, went to sleep and missed the wedding.

The obvious message is to be prepared, for Jesus said in Matthew 1:13 that we do not know the day nor the hour for His return.

We also studied the parable of the talents, beginning in Matthew 1:14, where Jesus is giving another comparison to the kingdom of heaven.  He talks about a man going on a journey who put his possessions in the hands of his servants, giving them respectively one, two or five talents to invest. When he returned, two had respectable returns on their investment, but the servant with one talent was afraid and merely hid his talent in the ground. The result was that this fearful, unfaithful servant was cast into outer darkness.  The application on this illustration was faithfulness, and the fact that one will either "use it or lose it."

Our last parable was when Jesus said that when He was hungry, thirsty, and naked, those who ministered to him inherited the kingdom (Matthew 24:34.  The righteous did not remember ministering to Him, but He told them that whenever they did it to "the least of these," they did it unto Him.  Some believe this to mean how the nations treat the Jews, but the implication is that we will be judged on how we treat our fellow man.

Besides reading of all the joy in welcoming new babies into the world, I  have also been made aware of the sadness at the passing of several of my Facebook friends' loved ones.  Sometimes it was unexpected and sometimes foreseeable, but no one knew exactly when life would end for that person.  Just as we do not know the answer to the question put forth by the disciples in Matthew 24:3 as to when the end of the age and the time of His coming will be, we do not know when our days on earth will be ended.  All we can do is to make sure we are ready, our preparations have been made and it will be our turn to arrive in a new life, when Jesus will say, "Enter into the joys of the Lord, thou good and faithful servant." Matthew 25:21.