He sits watching his father add on to the house in preparation for him and his bride.
"Is it time yet, Father?" the son enthusiastically asks.
"Not yet, son," his father replies, "just a few more boards and nails and then it will be time."
This is a Jewish custom. For the father to build an extra room onto his house for his son and his son's bride to live. Once the extra room is built, the son has the father's permission to go get his bride.
Since the bride does not know what time her groom will appear to marry her, she must stay alert and wait for the signal that he is coming, which is told by the blow of the ram's horn. It is her duty to her groom that she stay on the lookout for his appearance which will only happen once he gets the signal from his father that he has his blessing and that the extra room is done.
And that is what this young man is doing right now....waiting, and waiting. He feels as if his father is taking long purposely just to test his patience.
"How much longer, Father?" the son once again asks.
"All right, now you can go get her."
The son jumps up from where he is sitting and before long has gathered most of his friends. The alarm is sounded as he walks proudly down the street to gather up his bride. He gets closer to her house, expecting to find her already outside her door, but she is not there. He knocks on her front door and there is no answer. He knocks again...and again...still no answer.
"What could be going on that would make her not answer my call to marriage?" the young man says out loud. "Everything is all prepared for her. Where is she? Does she not love me anymore?"
Little does he know that she is only but a mere yard away from him on the other side of the door....sleeping. She has waited up nearly every night since his proposal to her, with her candle lit, anxiously awaiting his arrival. Tonight is the first time that she has allowed herself to get some rest.
"He hasn't come for me yet," she thinks, "one little nap to freshen up won't hurt me."
Yet, that one little nap has turned into a deep sleep, one that not even her groom's arrival can wake her out of. He has come when she least expected him. Her candle has slowly burned out. She is dreaming of him, but now all of her fantasies will remain exactly that....a dream. She is sleeping away her reality.
He gives one last desperate knock on the door...still no answer. He then slowly turns and walks away from her doorstep. He walks home, alone, with the weight of all his sadness heaped upon his back and questions of her sincerity of her love for him on his mind.
His father sees him walking down the pathway. He instantly knows something is wrong. He can plainly see that his son's shoulders are slumped and that he is alone.
"What did I do wrong, Father?" the son quietly asks as he meets his father. "I gave her my everything, my life, and all I asked was for her to be ready for me. She said she would wait, that she loved me more than anything. What did I do wrong?"
"I don't know, son. I just don't know." His father replies softly as he gives his son a gentle yet reassuring hug.
--Are you ready for the groom (Jesus) to appear?
~"In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."
--John 14:2-3
~"You must also be ready for the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."
--Luke 12:40
