Question

I pass a function an xml variable: node.

function (node){
    //how do I do this part:
    $(node + ":contains('some_random_text')");
}

I want to find a sub node that has the random text.

Answer 1

What you would have to do is pass in the xml as the context to what you are looking for:

var _xml = "these are xml nodes";

function (node){
    //how do I do this part:
    $(node + ":contains('some_random_text')", _xml);
}

Otherwise it is looking for the match in your document;