Parable of the Ten Young Girls

Copyright © 1990, 2006 by Aliensanctuary

Once there were ten young girls who were invited to a wedding. Each received an invitation, several pages long, with some instructions about what to do, what to wear, and directions. They were to wait at the bride’s house, and while they were waiting, they were supposed to invite any passersby to the wedding. When they heard the bridegroom call out, they were to join him and the bride and escort them to the bridegroom’s house, a number of blocks away, where the wedding would take place. Because it was an evening wedding in an area with no streetlights or electrical power, they would need flashlights to find their way as they walked to the bridegroom’s house.

When the evening of the wedding arrived, the ten girls met at the bride’s house at 6 pm, according to the instructions on the invitation, to wait for the bridegroom’s announcement. The first five girls wisely brought extra batteries for their flashlights, just in case they might need them. The last five girls didn’t bring any extra batteries because they thought the ones in their flashlights would last until the wedding was over, with power to spare.

Something happened, and there was a delay. While they were waiting, it began to grow dark. The girls all turned on their flashlights to check their invitations. The first five girls who brought extra batteries began carefully reading through their invitations to see if they mistakenly came at the wrong day or time. “You must have faith,” the invitation said,” faith to believe that whatever the bridegroom says will happen.”

But after an hour, the last five girls grew impatient. One of them said, “I’m so tired of waiting,” “Yes, this is SOOOO boring,” her four friends agreed. “Let’s find something fun to do.” One of them pulled out a portable CD player and some CD’s. Another pulled out a DVD player and some movies, while another pulled out a stack of novels, all murder mysteries. Still another pulled out an electronic game machine. The last girl pulled out her cell phone with live TV. They all took the batteries out of their flashlights, except for the girl reading the novels, and put them in their machines and started to play them.

They made so much noise, though, that the neighbors yelled at them to turn it down or leave. So the five girls with the entertainment machines went a little farther away. “We’ll still be able to hear the bridegroom’s voice,” they said, “if he even shows up tonight. It’s 8 pm, too late for a big wedding, so he probably won’t even come.

While the first five girls used their flashlights to carefully study their invitations and instructions and talk about the goodness of the bridegroom and the beauty of the bride, the other five girls used their batteries to read novels, watch movies and TV shows, play electronic games, and listen to music.

Once they went over to the first five girls who were discussing their invitations with passersby and said, “Why don’t you join us for a while and have some real fun instead of reading those boring invitations over and over?”

“We all need to study our invitations so we can be ready when the bridegroom comes,” the first five girls said, “and we don’t want to miss inviting any passersby to the wedding by getting distracted. Anyway, all those books and movies and TV shows come from the City of the Wicked Prince, and we don’t want to look at anything of his.”

“Get real!” the last five girls sneered. “You just think you’re so wonderful studying all of the time and thinking you’re better that we are. We’ll show you strict, narrow-minded legalists that we have just as much right to go to the wedding banquet as you do. So there!” Then they stomped off in a rage.

It grew later and later, nearly 9 pm, and still no sign of the bridegroom and the bride. The first five girls continued to read and show their invitations to others, and talked of the kindness of the king and his son, the bridegroom, as they waited for his arrival. A few of the passersby were interested, but most had other things they wanted to do.

It was 10 pm, now. The first five girls were too tired to read anymore. “Let’s go to sleep now and save our batteries for when the bridegroom comes,” they said. All five quickly went to sleep.

Meanwhile, the last five girls grew tired of listening to the same CD’s and movies and books and TV shows and games, so they said, “We’re bored again. Let’s do something else.” So they called all of their friends on the cell phone, and soon there was a large crowd with them now.

One of the last five girls said, “Let’s play Pretend.” They all got together and pretended to have a big wedding, just like the one they were waiting to attend. By this time, their batteries were getting weak, so they rented a generator to power the lights and electronic equipment. They quickly found props and made a movie of the pretend wedding. Then they sat and ate popcorn and shrieked with laughter at the funny parts, especially when the bride slapped the groom and cussed him out.

After the movie, the last five girls said, “We’re bored. Let’s play Games.” So they found some balls and played basket ball, baseball, and football out in a nearby parking lot. There were a lot of cheers, boos, a little cussing, and a few black eyes. “Kill ‘em!” the crowd screamed and stomped when their favorite team was winning.

After the ball games, another of the last five girls said, “Let’s play Therapy!” So they all got together and psychoanalyzed one another, discussed all of their problems, and made a list of 39 Steps to Make it One Day at a Time.

Another of the last five girls said, “Let’s have a Concert!” So they and their friends all scattered and returned with all kinds of musical instruments. “Let’s give a Concert in honor of the bride and groom, and the king, too,” they said. After a little practice, they gave a dazzling Concert, complete with lightning flashes, thunder, and explosions, simulating the arrival of the bridegroom.

Finally, the last of the last five girls said, “Let’s play Church.” Everyone interested in playing church gathered around and organized a really impressive service. The congregation of friends and passersby cheered and clapped and whistled during the special music video presented by a world-famous pop singer. A well-known TV preacher preached, via satellite on a huge, portable wide-screen, such a wonderful sermon that everyone gave him a standing ovation.

It was 11:30 pm, now, and the girls in the second group realized they were getting tired. Just about that time, their generator ran out of gas and they had no light except for their dim flashlights. They sent all of their friends and passersby home and said to themselves, “Let’s go to sleep, now. There’s nothing left to do since the generator quit and our flashlight batteries are nearly dead. Besides, it’s just too late to wait up for the bridegroom any more. He’s not coming tonight.” Finally, the last five girls went to sleep, too.

A few minutes before midnight, the bridegroom’s voice called out, “Wake up, everyone. It’s time to come to the wedding!”

Immediately, the first five girls found their flashlights and put their spare batteries in. The flashlights cast a powerful beam of light which would light the way for the bride and bridegroom and all of the passersby who were coming to the wedding, too.

The last five girls woke up confused and sleepy, and they fumbled around trying to find their flashlights. “This is not good,” they cried, “all of our batteries are nearly dead. Let’s borrow some batteries from the first five girls over there. See, their flashlights are working fine.”

The five girls with good batteries said, “We’re sorry, but we don’t have any extra batteries. We have just enough for ourselves. If we share with you, then we’ll get lost in the dark. But there is an all-night convenience store a couple of miles down the road. You can buy some batteries there.”

So, while the five girls with working flashlights went to meet the bridegroom at his house, the other five girls ran to the convenience store and bought some batteries. When they came back to the bride’s house, no one was there. From one of their wrinkled-up invitations they picked up off of the ground, they found out where the groom lived.

About the time the last five girls were leaving the convenience store, the first five girls showed their invitations to the doorman and went inside the groom’s house to find their places at the great feast prepared for them. When the last five girls finally arrived at the groom’s house, they knocked on the door and said, “Sir, open the door for us.”

Someone opened a little window in the door and asked, “Who are you?”

“We were invited to the wedding, but were delayed in coming.”

“I don’t know who you are,” the doorman said. You can’t come in here without an invitation.” Then he closed the little window in the door.

The five girls who had wasted their batteries pounded on the door and cried out, “But we did many wonderful things for the bridegroom. We gave a concert for him, we made a movie about a wedding and invited people to watch it. We played games and read novels in his honor. We played church in his honor, and even taught everyone the 39 Steps to Make it One Day at a Time. Everything we did was for him!”

But there was no answer, only darkness and silence.