Snake Jewelry - Emblem of Eternal Love?

     There's a new vintage jewelry hunter in the estate sale jungle this summer. Many of us have been a bit ruffled when she shows up at the front of a line, rushes to the jewelry display, and plants herself in a place that crowds out all other hunters! She's new to the hunt, and hasn't learned that there are factors besides sparkle that make a vintage piece of jewelry a treasure. And that is why this rare set was still available when she had moved on:

 Designer ART bracelet, ring and brooch set features a textured snake motif with red rhinestone eyes and white enamel accents.

    Or maybe she didn't like the snakes!

     Snake motif jewelry has found a place of favor on and off throughout history. For Cleopatra it represented her royalty. To Prince Albert and Queen Victoria it represented eternal love - Albert proposed to Victoria with a ring made in the image of a snake, emerald accents included. The pieces above were probably made about the time Elizabeth Taylor starred in the 1963 movie, "Cleopatra." 

     In the Bible we see the snake as a deceiver. The one who tempted Eve to disobey God by eating from the only forbidden tree in the garden of Eden. Who spoke and said, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When Eve gave in to temptation, ate the fruit and gave it to Adam to eat also, all of creation was changed. Including the snake!

     Because of that disobedience Adam and Eve were separated from God. They were no longer innocent in a garden paradise, but sinners - aware of their nakedness and hiding from God. The God they had enjoyed walking with in the cool of the day...

     The first lie told to mankind by Satan the deceiver was this: Sin will not cause death. 

      God's truth states, "For the wages of sin is death..." 

       "But..."

  

       "...the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

      Our great God has provided a way for us - the deceived ones - to be restored to life. Not because we believe that our sin doesn't cause death, but because we believe Jesus Christ paid the "wages" of our sin with His own death on the cross.

     Snake jewelry has held many different meanings for its wearers throughout history.  The Victorian belief of eternal love is the one I will share, though not the kind that Albert and Victoria professed. I will see it as a reminder of God's eternal love that changed the penalty for sin from death to eternal life through Jesus!

  *Genesis 3, Romans 6:23