The Discovery of Mummy Juanita

High atop the Andes Mountains in southern Peru, American archaeologist Dr. Johan Reinhard and his Peruvian climbing partner Miguel Zárate were exploring the summit of Mount Ampato, a dormant volcano rising 20,000 feet above sea level, when they stumbled upon something unexpected. This year marks the 30th anniversary of this extraordinary discovery.

The melting of the summit’s snow and ice, caused by volcanic ash from a nearby eruption, had revealed an ancient burial. Inside a frozen bundle lay the remarkably preserved body of a young Inca girl. Because of the incredible altitude and frigid temperatures, this “ice mummy” was in a pristine state. Reinhard and his team carefully retrieved the body, later naming her “Juanita,” or the Ice Maiden. Juanita’s discovery was groundbreaking. This young girl was an Inca sacrificial victim, perfectly preserved for over 500 years.

Sacrifice of the Young

Juanita was believed to be around 12 to 15 years old at the time of her death. She was part of the Capacocha ceremony, a ritual sacrifice performed by the Incas to honor their gods and seek their favor. The freezing temperatures of Mount Ampato essentially “freeze-dried” her body. Her skin, hair, and even the internal organs remained intact. Her body was so well-preserved that scientists were able to determine her final meal (corn and vegetables).

Scientists were also about to figure out how she died–a violent blow to the head, something consistent with Incan sacrificial practices.

Over time, additional mummies of sacrificed children have been found near Juanita’s resting place, indicating that these rituals were not isolated events. The Incas believed the mountains were alive, and sacrifices like Juanita were made to ensure harmony between humanity and the gods. Sacrifices maintained the cosmic balance as the victims were sent to be intermediaries between the people and their deities.

Before I share the real reason for our reflection on this story, I want to briefly acknowledge how horrifying it is to look this deep into the face of humanity’s guilt. This tragic act of violence is the fruit of what our inner guilt has produced. Due to what is known about Juanita’s clothing and diet, it’s likely that she was part of the richer class of society. This wasn’t some forgotten poor girl, but someone who was part of a wealthy family and known in her community. Most likely, her parents participated in this act and wept their way up the mountain as they sought to do what the community felt necessary in order to make peace with heaven. 

In fact, they probably felt quite similar to Abraham as he made a similar march up a mountain with his son Isaac (Genesis 22). Thank God, the light has come in Jesus. Though veiled in shadow, the story of Abraham showed us that such things were never part of God’s plan. As he told Abraham, God himself would provide a sacrifice necessary to break through the depths of our guilt. His would do this by giving his very own life to us, pouring out sacred blood to unwind our guilt-driven cycles of violence and self-hatred.

But I want to get to what I really felt the Lord highlight as I read this story. I believe the discovery of an innocent girl preserved in ice is a parable filled with revelation light. This is not to diminish this girl’s actual story. God knows Juanita’s real name and loves her immensely. Yet her story can still be a signpost for an important message – one that in fact holds the answer to humanity’s horrifying guilt.

“I Will Preserve Her Innocence”

My oldest daughter is not far from Juanita’s age. She just entered middle school and with that has come a new season of adolescence. It’s been a whirlwind of change in the house as I’m navigating some changing emotions (not just in her, but in myself!). As a result, I’ve been pondering something I felt the Lord speak to me when she was about 3 years old. We were giving her a bubble bath at the time and I found myself absolutely grateful for this little toddler and her playful innocence. Yet that gratitude came as a two-edged sword, for with it came a nagging fear in the back of my mind as to how life might try to steal this innocence as she got older.

In the very same moment, however, I felt the Holy Spirit speak these words to me: I will preserve her innocence. 

A surge of revelation hit me and I knew this was a promise not only for me to personally hold onto for my daughter, but something I was to understand for everyone around me…

What if I told you that the innocence of all humanity is perfectly preserved in a place much higher than the Andes Mountains?

Even when we were dead and doomed in our many sins, he united us into the very life of Christ and saved us by his wonderful grace! He raised us up with Christ the exalted One, and we ascended with him into the glorious perfection and authority of the heavenly realm, for we are now co-seated as one with Christ! (Ephesians 2:5-6)

In the beginning, when we were first dreamed up and fashioned by the invisible hand of the Spirit, we were declared as “very good.” We were a perfect reflection of our Creator, delightfully innocent, pure as pure as can be. Now this purity obviously got tarnished along the way. Fear slipped through deceptive cracks in the doors of our hearts and brought pride along with it. Now we look out in the world and innocence can be very hard to come by.

Although that is not entirely true. We see innocence all the time when we look at children. For this reason, the abuse or death of a child is something we know in the depths of our being is an unspeakable evil. The reality is, even though the world is filled with darkness, the light of innocence breaks through the clouds all the time. This is because the original blessing we talk about so often still dwells within the dusty frame of our humanity, and it shines all the clearer when a new child comes into the world.

Somehow, down through the line of Adam’s wayward children, the original seed of God’s blessing was preserved. That first mark of divine innocence had not been completely wiped away. We know this especially because the bloodline of humanity was still able to contain the most pure and innocent Being imaginable when that gene pool came to a young girl named Mary. Within her body, God brought forth his perfect Son, a Son who still held original blueprint for every person in the world (see John 1:4).

The Gospel is rarely as clear as when Paul’s writes of it in the second chapter of Ephesians. There we learn about how Jesus took care of our guilt problem. Though he was unstained from humanity’s corruption, he still chose to identify with our wickedness. He died bearing the full weight of our guilt upon his body and soul. This was the same tremendous evil that caused superstitious parents to murder their own baby girl. Such evil might not look as ugly in most of our lives today (in some cases it looks like self-harm or maybe just nagging insecurity), but it is the same deadly disease nonetheless.

Jesus took our guilt and exchanged it with his pure innocence. Our sins are now forgiven, washed whiter than the snow found at the top of the highest Peruvian mountain. Our original innocence is now perfectly redeemed, and he continues to stand on our behalf, declaring the truth of our purity. Jesus was raised into the highest heavens and now represents each one of us. He is not doing this in some vaguely symbolic way. He is truly united with humanity. We are there with him in the heavenly realm of Zion. There, our innocence is preserved and we can see it clearly in the face of Christ. 

Today, Juanita resides in the Museo Santuarios Andinos in Arequipa. Visitors can view her in a climate-controlled glass case that ensures her preservation. In the same way, God has preserved the sacrifice of his Son for all of us to see. Like Juanita, we can also know the contents of Jesus’s last meal. We partake of it every Sunday whenever we gather as a believing church! It was the communion meal where we remember our forgiveness and restored innocence.

Come Away From the Lies

I’ll add one more thought into the mix. In the Song of Songs, the Shepherd King comes to his bride who is hiding behind a wall and tells her that the winter is over and gone. He invites her to come away from her wall in order to embrace a new day of hope and light. As I’ve written elsewhere, the story of the bride is the journey every human soul is called to take. All of us are invited to come out of our wintry self-protection and embrace Christ’s kiss. This is his word of grace over us; the reality of our perfect union with him.

I love how in the story of this archeologist’s discovery, it was a volcanic eruption that melted the ice covering the preserved body of Juanita. In the same way, it is an eruption of God’s fiery love that exposes our innocence and melts away the ice covering our own hearts. It is his love that heals the damage brought to us by this world, bringing us back to the truth hidden within. 

There is no condemnation that can stand against us now. No evil can pass through the gates of our eyes and ears and steal the reality of our righteous preservation in Christ. He is the final say over our lives and over the world itself. We are simply invited to let his love burn away everything that says otherwise. 

And this is all a work of complete grace, which is where this tragic parable becomes even more poignant due to the name given to this girl: Juanita means God is Gracious.

I believe this year will mark an acceleration of faith in this aspect of the Gospel. People will wake up to their redeemed innocence in Christ and then go out like never before to help others find their true innocence as well. This is what the world is hungering for.  There will be an awakening to what Paul writes in one of his other foundational letters:

And by the blood of his cross, everything in heaven and earth is brought back to himself— back to its original intent, restored to innocence again! (Colossians 1:20 TPT)

A Final Note…

The day I started working on this article, my daughter Annabelle told me what she learned in school that day…. “Ice mummies.” I have never heard this topic brought up in my life, and the day I start writing an article about it (and referencing her in it), she comes home to talk to me about this very subject!

What’s interesting is that my daughter learned not of someone 500 years old, but an ice mummy who was over 5000 years old, dating to the earliest days of civilization. Incredible. I believe God gave this moment to me to confirm his promise over my daughter, but to also root this promise in his Word over all humanity! 

Thank you Jesus!