The Old Fishing Boat

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 1^st 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.