By Dianne E. Butts
The Jesus Boat (Photo from Wikipedia.org)
It was January 24, 1986. A prolonged drought lay over Israel. The drought had lowered the level of the Sea of Galilee so much, that two brothers, Yuval and Moshe Lufan, made an unusual discovery that has excited people of faith and archaeologists ever since and may have people finding God in the Jesus boat.
A boat.
But not just any boat. A boat from the era of Jesus and found on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus had preached and fed multitudes of people with only a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish.
Matthew 15:29-39 tells us that on the shores of the Sea of Galilee Jesus healed many of illnesses and fed 4,000 people with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish.
John 6:1-14 says that during another time, Jesus fed a great crowd of 5,000 people “with five small barley loaves and two small fish” and had twelve baskets of barley loaves left over.
It was as Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee that Jesus called Simon Peter and his brother Andrew to come follow him, “and I will make you fishers of men,” Jesus said (Matthew 4:18-19 and Mark 1:16:17)
At the time the brothers Yuval and Moshe discovered the boat, a brilliant, rare double rainbow stretched over them. Was this a sign from God?
According to an article on JesusBoatMuseum.com, “What had been found was a Bible-era artifact like no other. Some consider it to be among the top ten biblical archaeological discoveries ever found. The Jesus Boat is a one-of-a-kind actual touch-point back to the exact time and place of Jesus!”
The boat currently is held in the Yigal Allon Museum located on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. Could this be a boat that Jesus sailed in? Might this be a boat touched by the very hands of Jesus Christ? Many people are asking similar questions and searching to see if they are finding God in the Jesus boat.
©Dianne E. Butts. Dianne is a freelance writer, screenwriter, and author. You can visit Dianne at www.DianneEButts.com and on Twitter as @DianneEButts.
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