Lost Purity

By Lisa Catania

I love this time of year when we all stop and reflect on Jesus’ death and resurrection. This Sunday, the sermon touched on the cross being a symbol of God’s power to deliver anyone from the powerful stronghold of sin. In my life, God always has interesting ways of driving the sermon home.

My daughter received a purity ring for her birthday. It too is a symbol. It is a symbol of her staying pure for marriage. She treasured this beautiful shiny ring on her finger. She showed it to everyone and happily explained what it symbolized. She glowed when she wore it. However, this weekend, in the midst of playing by the creek in our backyard in the rain, it slipped off of her finger. She was visibly upset. For in an instant, in a moment of not thinking, she had lost this ring. Now she was suffering a loss of a gift she had so treasured. She was no longer glowing. She was slumping in her anger and shame at her loss.

God gave us a teachable moment that day as we wadded through the muck and mud by the creek looking for that ring. We discussed how many girls have lost their purity physically, in a moment of not thinking, in a moment of passion. We chatted about how their pain goes much deeper than just losing a ring. How these girls cannot just go to the store as we would be doing to buy a new ring. However, do these girls know that like Ashley, they can go to Jesus for forgiveness?

I love looking at the cross, a great symbol of power, hope, love and forgiveness. There are days like my daughter had, where I too have a hard time forgiving myself much less accepting the forgiveness from my Savior. I then look at the cross and thank God that Jesus died for my sins.

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16