Jesus told a story, set in a multi-day Hebrew wedding, about ten bridesmaids waiting for the bridegroom (Jesus) to arrive. Five of them brought extra lamp oil, were ready even though he arrived late, and went into the wedding. Five others were unprepared. But they weren't just missing oil—they'd missed a relationship. When they got back, the bridegroom hauntingly told the unprepared bridesmaids, “I don’t know you.”

• What spiritual lesson(s) can you learn from looking at the difference between the “wise” and the “foolish” characters in this story? With which group do you identify more? In what ways, day by day, are you deepening your personal bond with Jesus so that you know him, and he knows you?
• Jesus’ parable clearly showed that we cannot borrow some things, particularly relationships. Have you ever wished you could “borrow” the connection your pious grandmother or your preacher has with God? Doesn’t work. God wants a love relationship with you, and you only build that by relating to God yourself. In what ways, if any, are you trying to “ride someone else’s coattails” to God? How can you take ownership of that relationship for yourself?