Nowhere in our modern world is the radical deterioration of symbols more startlingly seen than in the desanctification of sexuality. People are looking for sex without love, for love without marriage, for marriage without responsibility. The sexual relationship is in fact an epiphany. That means it is the revelation of a reality which is not of this world. Such realities are best understood through symbols, and if we are not faithful in handling those symbols, we lose sight altogether of the reality. Sexuality is a mysterious representation of God's love for us and of the stunning fact of our unions with Him. It makes us aware of our limitations as men and women: each dependent upon the other, both dependent upon God for life and meaning and fulfillment, yet marvelously compensated in those limitations by the fact that fulfillment means union. As we share the life God and enter into His own intimate life and joy, so in the marriage relationship we share each other's lives and enter into the deepest human union where our masculinity and femininity are most gloriously expressed and completed.

Elisabeth Elliot author

© Elisabeth Elliot