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By Marie Harrison

For the Clemmons Courier

This past Saturday morning was spent cleaning the house and doing all those chores that are so easy to put off to another day. Curtains were taken down and cleaned, the screened porch was thoroughly wiped down, that pile of papers in the “need to sort” bin was finally sorted. Everything was finally back in its proper place after a hectic few weeks of starting back to school and adjusting to the routine of homework and sports, etc.

After a morning, and much of the afternoon, spent cleaning, my family decided to hop in the pool and relax that evening. But no sooner than we had all jumped in the deep end and swam the length of the pool, our relaxing evening took quite a turn. As I touched one end and swam back for the deep another time, I heard one of my daughters frantically yelling from behind me. With my head half in the water, I couldn’t quite make out the screams, so I stopped swimming, turned around, and heard it clear as day.

“Snake!” 

Confused, I spun around, looking in the grass or on the concrete or even in the wooded area near the pool, but there was no snake to be seen. And then I saw my youngest daughter in complete panic mode, frantically trying to get out of the pool because the snake was right beside her, swimming in our pool!

Instantly, there was panic. My youngest daughter was trying to get out of the pool as quickly as she could but with every movement she made, the ripple effects from the water were forcing the snake to drift closer to her. My other daughter was also trying to get out of the pool quickly but with limited mobility and agility due to her disease, she wasn’t making much progress. My son heard the commotion and came running, quickly reaching in to help pull both of his sisters to safety, out of the water. My husband made a mad dash for the pool net and instructed me to “watch the snake” so that we wouldn’t lose it. I hopped out and trained my eyes on the snake, swimming, and squirming, and sliding all along the edge of our pool, that snake was not leaving my sight. And finally, after what felt like hours, my husband grabbed the pool net, reached in and scooped the snake up and out. Crisis avoided, narrowly. 

As our heartbeats slowly began to come back to normal, we couldn’t believe what had happened. How had our relaxing afternoon taken such a turn for the worse so quickly? With the crisis over and everyone safe, we could all laugh about the situation now, but in the moment, there was definitely no laughter. In a time of crisis, all we could do was triage the situation and react on impulse and instinct. We hadn’t practiced what to do if there was snake in our pool, how could we? Who would have ever guessed that was how our evening would end? And yet, it did. And when the unexpected happened, we were ready.

And that’s the point Jesus was trying to make in Matthew 25 with the parable of the 10 virgins. In Jesus’ story, some of the women had prepared for the unexpected and brought extra oil, while others foolishly ran out and in doing so, missed their opportunity to meet the bridegroom. Jesus’ parable is meant to teach us not that we should keep jars of oil at the ready, but instead that our hearts and minds should always be ready for the unexpected, for the return of Jesus to this Earth. In Matthew 24, just the chapter before, Jesus warns His followers that no one knows the day or time when Jesus will return and the Earth as we know it will pass away, instead we have to always be ready. Ready for the unexpected. Ready for the crisis. Ready to jump into action in a moment’s notice. Hearts and minds trained, instinctively knowing what to do Always ready to tell others about Jesus and the hope of salvation that is offered to everyone who admits their sins and trusts fully in Him. We don’t know when the end is coming, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe not for another thousand years, but we do know Jesus’ instructions to all of us. Be ready.