Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
I often do a little reading in the morning. One of the books I recently pulled off my bookshelf is John Flavel's The Mystery of Providence, which was first published in 1678. An exceptional book written from the perspective of a 17th century Puritan, it is recommended reading for anyone, but especially those interesting in the topic of divine providence.
I recently received the following email from John L.
It has been a while since I wrote, but as a regular (usually daily) reader, I want to take a moment first to thank you again for your writing!
Rarely do I not absorb all of your posts with enjoyment and enthusiasm, and really enjoy all the ancillary subjects you delve into...especially Christianity, local history, fossils, European history, etc., etc., etc.
Accordingly, I found yesterday's Easter blog of interest and was very impressed by the 70 year old Easter basket.
It has often been a heartbreaking struggle for me, but I am glad to see you also treasure the value in family history represented by objects that live on well beyond us.
The first paragraph was also amusing to me in your musing on the Easter metal detecting hunt, especially, "the symbolism of things being returned from the earth," etc. And "some Easter metal detecting finds are very appropriate to the occasion."
So I decided to go out and see what you meant. I hit a beach in PBC I haven't been to in a while that I know gets cut pretty good, though has been getting extensively renourished.
As expected, there was a nice high cut albeit solely in renourishment sand, so I decided to start at the dune face that had some interesting spots just below the face.
Within 5 minutes, this little silver guy showed up in 8 inches of soft, dry sand.
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Silver Buddha Found on Easter Hunt.
Find and photo by John L. |
Marked 925.
What I find so interesting is the ironic connection to your words and returning BUDDA to the earth!
Although a nice find, if it was Jesus, I would not have even been surprised, because my faith needs no restoring, and I even had a VERY spiritual experience metal detecting once you and your readers may enjoy hearing.
About 10 years ago, ran into a young college couple that were leaders of my kid's church youth-group.
They were sitting on the beach, as I was walking down to begin a hunt in a spot that is one of my favorites for the occasional artifact or old jewlery.
As I excaimed how nice it was to see them there, they joked with me..."John, what are you doing with that thing? You know to store up your treasures in heaven!"
The young guy and his fiance and I laughed and they then asked, "John, can we say a prayer for you?"
I said of course, and right there on the beach we locked hands and prayed.
Robby spoke a beautiful prayer for minutes and with a small tear in my eye, I thanked them both, walked away about 20 yards to give them some privacy, and proceeded to turn on my Excal.
What was astonishing was just as I turned it on and was tuning it, it seemed I was on a target already!
I had yet to make a single swing!
When I dug it up it was a small object roughly the size of a golfball and very heavily encrusted with small shells, but I could still make out the unmistakeable shape as my heart raced.
IT WAS A CROSS!
I looked up and was surprised to see Robby and his fiance were already gone as if they were never there and all I saw was a big backhoe digging a pool in the backyard of a nearby beachfront house.
They were dumping the sand on the beach and I believe this may have come from deep in the ground in that pool hole just hours or at most a day before. I believe it may have been encrusted with shells before being buried. It was rather high on the beach.
It was yet another affirmation in my life of my spiritual connection.
The cross could be very old it seems and after electrolysis, revealed to be made of square nails made of nickel(?)
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Nail Cross Find.
Find and photo by John L. |
I tied the string necklace to it and wore it for a while, but stopped for fear of losing it.
Sorry for the long message, but somehow I thought you would enjoy hearing all of this.
John L.
But that is not the end of the story. The next day John wrote the following.
Hello again, again!
Yesterday, if you read my email, you may have noticed some confusion I had (since I had infered that I firmly believe sometimes things happen to me that I believe are communications or messages from above), as to why I would uncover a sterling silver Buddha on my first target of a late-day hunt.
As the faithful one I am, I have had several "connection" experiences I call them, and that Buddha just didn't seem right for some reason. Also, it was obviously a pretty recent drop which I noted.
Less than an hour after sending you the email report of my find, I was still disturbed enough about Easter Buddha, I decided to go on another hunt to another local beach.
When I got on the beach, a quick N-S scan revealed a nice narrow, 20-yard-long dip with wave water running through it from N-S.
"Perfect," I thought and headed right to it. I started from the N end of the dip and within secondschad my first target showing a 13 on the Equinox 800.
Soon after, out game a nice little greenie of an old nickle.
3-4 sweeps later at most, and within a minute or so I had nice target showing a 26 on the Equinox.
A minute later I was holding my Easter Cross in the palm of my hand!
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Crucifix Found by John L.
Photo by John L. |
The photo is the still- uncleaned side which highlights the Christ figure on the cross.
I have never seen a cross with Him on it, and it only the second one I have ever found, with the amazing spiritual story of the first found cross detailed in my message yesterday.
Thought you would enjoy hearing about my latest "connection" via metal detecting!
I started to post John's first email yesterday, but decided not to. That turned out to be fortunate because the story wasn't complete yet. I've learned to pay attention to my feelings.
I think treasure hunters often get the feeling that there is something more to what could be described as coincidences. I've described some of those experiences in this blog in the past. There was the time, for example, that I arrived at a beach and was asked by a street person if I could spare any change. I gave him a couple dollars worth or recently dug quarters, and he said God blesses those who help others. Within about my first three steps in the water I found a diamond ring. In a few more steps I found another gold ring.
And there was the time when I felt compelled to make a long drive to metal detect a particular beach. I didn't have time. If I made the drive I would only have a half hour at best to detect. I thought I didn't have enough time, but felt compelled to make the drive. In a few minutes I had one of the biggest diamond rings I had ever found. I find it hard to believe that was divine providence, but I can't say for sure. It doesn't seem to me that it is something God would do, unless I was to learn something from the experience. But it seemed to be more than coincidence, whatever you call it.
Luck, coincidence, or whatever you call it, I recommend the Flavel book, especially if you want study divine providence.
The key word in the Flavel book seemed to me to be observe. Another book that I was browsing the same morning is E. M. Bounds' Winning The Invisible War. The key word in that book is watch (as in the sense of vigilance). Coincidence? Significance?
I have to stop there.
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As you know the beaches are not eroding now, but there are a lot of beach goers so you might want to consider that when you decide what you want to do.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net
