After nearly two months of prayer and searching for a supplier of this elusive wood, I had had no luck. I then found a nursery in Florida that actually sold acacia seyal trees (the Shittah tree)!  I found they only had small trees (10 gal.) which would only yield bland sap wood. I tried to buy one anyway and was told they do not ship trees to California- no luck.

It seemed God wanted me to have this wood, because I later received an email from them saying they were discarding their inventory due to lack of demand and that I could have all I wanted, if I came and got it. I was able to find an old Florida woodworking group newsletter through an Internet search with some names and phone numbers. One of those numbers was for a woodworker named Frank, who had the same area code as the nursery. After calling Frank and explaining to him what I was trying to do, his response was "I just feel that I need to help you". I was in luck!

Frank, after doing some dumpster diving, got the wood and even found a few pieces large enough to have some high-quality heart wood. As he was loading these pieces into his van the nursery owner told him that he had a large tree branch that had been blown from their specimen tree in a recent storm - after some shrewd wood trades, Frank now had a large piece of Shittim wood.

I was thrilled! He shipped me the wood and on his invoice he wrote: "You were meant to have this wood, there were just too many coincidences for this to all be luck!". This was humbling for me...it wasn't luck, or my diligence, this was truly an answer to prayer.

I was anxious to get this wood on the lathe and was not disappointed. The coloring, with its reds, browns, and blondes was incredible. This wood has a three-dimensional quality (called chatoyance), where it's as though you can see deep inside the wood. This characteristic doesn't become apparent until you sand up through about 1,500 grit, and by the time you get to 12,000 grit it's pronounced, unfortunately it doesn't come through very well in the photographs. 

With this beautiful wood in my hands I reflected on its use in the scriptures. It's most notably is as the wood that the Ark of the Covenant was made from to hold the Ten Commandments, so this was truly a special wood. While considering the Ten Commandments, we must also be mindful of what Jesus said when asked about the commandments: (Matthew 22:36-40 NIV):

³⁶Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? ³⁷Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' ⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

It has been written by others that Shittim Wood represents the humanity of Christ in its usage as the material of the Ark of the Covenant. In my mind it also is representative of our love for God and in turn, God's love for us.

In Christ,