It
was an amazing find. Just an old
nail. Yet, it caught the attention of two brothers
because it was so old. They had been born and raised in the Ginosaur Kibutz located on
the northwest side of the Sea of Galilee.
The two brothers were amateur archaeologists and had always hoped for
some kind of discovery. On a hot, dry
day of a summer drought when the waters of the Sea of Galilee had receded, they
found an old nail cemented in the sun-dried mud of this ancient shore. Curious, they dug down
and uncovered the top of what looked like a very old fishing boat. They turned the find over to a credible
archaeology group who carefully unearthed the mud-logged boat. It was a twelve day project requiring skilled
and volunteer help. Tests confirmed that it was indeed a 1st
century AD fishing boat.
 |
The fishing boat, discovered in 1986, shown with its unique
protective structure, is on display in the Yigal Allon Museum. |
The
boat had been preserved because of the mud.
However, bringing it to the surface made it vulnerable
to drying and deterioration. To protect the
boat, it had to be submerged in a special acid for seven years.
While
no one knows whether Jesus ever was in this boat, it is unmistakably like one of
the boats Jesus used any of the times he crossed the lake. Certainly it was like the
fishing boats that Andrew and Peter, James and John left to follow Jesus.
One thing I learned about Israel is that it will always be a land of buried
treasure. We walked on top of layers of hidden
civilizations. Walking
the historical paths of Israel, I learned some things about buried treasure:
·
Some treasures may never be found.
·
Buried does not mean absent.
·
Uncovering buried treasure is hard work.
·
To unbury too quickly can be destructive.
How
many of us live with buried treasure.
Stories we don’t talk about.
Lessons we don’t share.
Compliments we only think. They are buried by our own negligence,
silence, or fear. Just
like the brothers who took an observant walk beside the mud-cracked,
drought-dried shore, we need to live each day looking for evidence of treasure
waiting to be found.
Time
to do some digging of our own.
