The Search

by Jane Vest

What is beyond the horizon? As the horizon recedes, it whets our desire to pursue it and discover what lies over the edge.

Man has always researched, if not for something definite, then for something above and beyond himself.

Danger has often attended these searches. Jason in his quest for the Golden Fleece sailed in the Argonaut, surviving the clashing rocks in the sea which would have destroyed his ship. He brought the Fleece back to Colchis and was rewarded by the king.

Prester John was a legendary king said to rule over a rich kingdom in Asia or Ethiopia. His existence was another "traveler's tale," although soldiers of fortune tried to find him for many centuries.

Many of the Knights of King Arthur's Round Table journeyed in an effort to recover the Holy Grail, the cup from which Jesus was said to have drunk from; all in vain.

In the New World of the Americas, the Spanish conquerors of Mexico in the 1500s had heard of the Seven Cities of Cibolas, somewhere to the north of Mexico, where gold was abundant. Their journey opened up the Southwest and California but the cities and the gold were nonexistent. As a footnote, Spanish gold coins of the period were excavated from a hill in Waverly, New York. The Spaniards did not travel that far north. Was it trade with the tribes that passed on the coins?

Today's technology has furthered our desire for the search. A recent television program purported to show the location of the remains of Noah's Ark in a snow and ice-covered mountain.

Underwater excavators using sophisticated mini-subs are searching for the lost island of Atlantis, destroyed by earthquake in ancient times.

Both secular and religious archaeologists are looking for the Ark of the Covenant hidden during the sacking of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Roman soldiery.

The search goes on as long as there is a deep need for discovery or fulfillment. May the search never end.