About two weeks ago, I was once again asked why in the world I choose to wear skulls. "Do you like them? Do they stand for something? Are you just a big weirdo?" OK, so I made that last question up, but I do get the first two all the time and not just by people who don't know me.I love most things weird. Notice that I didn't say all, 'cause zombies are gross, nasty and really freak me out. For most people I meet, skulls remind them that no one lives forever and that death is inevitable. But for me, skulls do represent something (besides some of them being on the cute side). I always give the same passage:
Romans 6:23 tells us "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
So let's finally take that trip to Skull Island I keep meaning to get to.
Every one's seen 'Peter Pan' right? Or at least you know the gist of the story. Well at some point in the movie Tiger Lily is kidnapped by Captain Hook and taken to Skull Island where she is tied to a post and set as a trap for Peter. Hook knows that Peter will take the bait, come to save Tiger Lily and in doing so, Hook will kill him and also allow Tiger Lily to drown. Fortunately, Peter saves Tiger Lily and they get away leaving Hook trying to escape his own tormentor, the crocodile.
By using Peter's trigger, Tiger Lily, as a lure, Hook easily draws Peter to Skull Island to his possible death. (And while I do realize that Peter was doing the right thing, we also believe that we are at times too). We suffer from temptations that trigger us to sin when we get arrogant by listening to Satan's lies and feel like we can to what we want to do. But afterwards we feel empty and dead on the inside, knowing we have broken God's word.
Romans 5:12 says "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned."
While there is no escape from the death that sin causes, we are set free from sin through Christ and given eternal life.
Romans 6:22 "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life."
So every time I look down at my many skull bracelets, I am reminded that my sins will cause my eternal death, but that Christ died on the cross to give me eternal life.
