I described in yesterday’s ditty two pieces of driftwood I’d found several years ago by a mountain stream in Colorado. I decided to make something out of the driftwood. You know, something purty to look at and maybe even semi-useful.

I decided to use a couple of short sections of dowel rod and fasten the bent branch piece to the flat board piece. Figured it could be used as a place to hang a couple of caps or maybe a towel rack in a rustic bathroom or something.

Before fastening the two main pieces together, I thought it would enhance the appearance of the project if I put a coat of shine on everything.

I started with a thin coat on the bent branch part of my project, using the dowels to hold and rotate the piece. If you’ve ever tried putting finish on driftwood, you know how quickly those first three or eight coats soak in. Spray on a coat, watch it disappear. Spray on another coat, watch it disappear. Eventually, given sufficient patience and an adequate supply of lacquer, the whole thing starts to get shiny. Eventually…

But there’s something else that happens along with the shine; you’ll start to see colors, patterns, details that you didn’t see before. I knew the flat plank piece had some small bits of faded blue paint. As the lacquer began to seal the surface, those bits “popped” into view as a deeper, more brilliant blue. And there was more of it than I realized before.

In addition to the revelation about the paint, it became easier to perceive multiple variations of natural wood color in both pieces: streaks and seams and little pocks and bumps. They were there all along but now much easier to see. According to a quick search on the internet, the reason things look different when wet—or when coated with lacquer—is because the water or finish catches the light and reflects it multiple times, causing the material to look darker and revealing more details.

It reminded me of how many times I’ve been reading a verse or section of scripture and been gifted with some new insight or perception. Even though I’d read it a dozen times before, something new popped out. It’s like the Spirit tilts it to a different angle or shines a different light on things or something. Or, the more the Light is reflected to what we’re examining, the clearer things become.

Whatever it is, it is always intended for the seeing, not just the shine.