From ghoulies and ghosties, and long-leggedy beasties, and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us.
—from an old Scottish litany

I find interesting all the fascination with skulls in design lately. I haven’t always been fond of skulls. Typically they conjure up visions of the macabre or of heavy metal bands… Cliché, I know! I recently read this in USA TODAY:

“Hoping to capitalize on the ‘skull chic’ trend…marketers are plastering skulls, with or without crossbones, on everything from T-shirts and belts to dinner plates and jewelry. Urban Outfitters offers more than a dozen skull-stamped products such as an $88 rolling suitcase online. Dior’s fine jewelry collection includes a diamond-encrusted skull pendant for $19,385—with rubies or other gems in the eye sockets extra.”

So I thought I’d give some consideration to the skull trend that’s generally done with a light-hearted wink.

Ages ago, in Celtic Britain, with the end of summer came the anticipation of short days and long nights. Livestock were butchered and food was stored up for the long winter. It was a time that was connected to death. Above all things, these pagan Celts feared death, darkness, and everything associated with the unknown.

Long before the age of light switches and street lamps, which bring us instant light, these people lived in fear of the dark. Witches, ghosts, and the souls of the dead wandering in the night were very real to these ancient people. Though they might have been a touched obsessed with death, aren’t we, in our culture, a touch in denial of it?

Four hundred years ago, Puritans, who are far from trendy, took the skull, as a symbol of death, and made use of it in their paintings. Maybe you have seen some of these 17th century Momentum Mori paintings in museums. Momentum Mori is a Latin phrase that means “remember your mortality.”

We believers shouldn’t become obsessed with death, skulls, and grief, but we should see our lives—and one day our deaths—from a Christ-centered perspective. After all, don’t we read, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain”? (Philippians 1:21).

So let’s remember our mortality, not living in either denial or fear. Instead let’s hold fast to this assurance, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38–39).

Remember…it was at Golgotha, “the place of the skull,” that this victory was won.

And so we say:

“When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’
‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57).

So I hope you’ll never look at a skull on a trendy T-shirt or belt buckle in the same way again!