The Steel Pan Man

It was mid-morning, hot and humid, in Trinidad. I had stepped off the bus into familiar territory, a place that I had been before. Memories assaulted me from 7 years before. My first trip to Trinidad. My first VBS in Trinidad. My first connection with children in Trinidad. As I looked around I saw the familiar carts that would hold steel pan drums, a big open field with grass that came up to my ankles, a concrete slab where we once held puppet shows...and then I heard it. A faint, but consist tink...tink...tink. I looked across the open field to a small shack. Nothing. Nobody was there. So I paused and listened. Again, tink...tink, tink...tink. This time I realized it was coming from the left. I turned, looking into the sun. There across the field and across the road, I saw a man. The man was the one making that faint noise. Walking toward the man, the tink became louder. What was he doing? The sound drew me in and before I knew it, I was standing right next to him, watching him.

He was dressed in an old dark gray t-shirt, small holes littered the shirt. Cotton shorts and well-worn shoes covered the rest of his body. Sitting on a small stool, he was using a small hammer-like tool, tapping a steel pan. This steel pan was not the beautiful, shiny, polished pan. No, this pan was rusty, and brown, with a few small holes smattering the base of the drum. The man was focused. I watched as he would tap the drum, then rub his hand along the drum, feeling for any defects. As I stood there, I thought to myself, "Goodness, why does he take his time with that steel pan? Looks like junk to me." He read my mind. He turned, looked at me, and then proceeded to tell me about the steel pan drum. Each drum is hand-made by pounding steel, then sent to get polished and shined up, then sent back to the creator to be tuned again before being sent to be purchased. One drum takes months to tune, weeks to polish, and then more weeks to tune again.

The way that he almost, lovingly, tuned that steel-pan made me think of myself and my relationship with my Creator God and Savior Jesus Christ. God is like that man. He sees a "piece of junk" something that seems to be unusable, insignificant, worthless, and creates a beautiful masterpiece. He sent His only Son, Jesus, to come and give us a free gift of salvation, a chance at living and becoming a usable, significant, worthy masterpiece. I was once that old, ugly steel pan. God took the time to pick me up from that pile of junk, look at me, and see me for who I could be. He is molding be everyday. Tapping me, making sure that my "notes," my way of living, is beautiful and pleasing to Him. He will do the same for you, if you only ask.