I am no longer a novice potter! I am a moving from being a novice potter to being an intermediately skilled potter. This means I have spent enough time at the wheel to be able to determine, more or less, what kind of vessel I want to throw; big, small, cylindrical, round or flat. It means I know how much clay to use for the vessel I plan on forming. It also means I have come to the place where I am no longer thinking about my throwing, about every step and process, but that my hands and body know intuitively what to do.
But throwing clay is just the first step of creating beautiful pottery. I have dozens of unfinished pieces in my shop waiting for their first firing in my kiln. Until then they remain very fragile and can simply be crushed in my hands. But learning to fire pottery is another skill to be learned. And then there’s glazing and finish work. Those skills take just as much time and learning as the first, without which my pieces remain unfinished and unusable-without purpose. In pottery there is always something new to learn-it is both exhilarating and humbling.
Jesus told his followers that unless you become like a child you have no part in my kingdom (Mt.18.) The Kingdom of God grows when we become like the least-those who are at the beginning, the non-experts and novices. As students, you place yourself in a position of learning and humility. You put yourself in the place of a novice and, in that, the kingdom of God comes a little closer.
As we begin a new academic year together I encourage all of us to become like children again-to place ourselves in the place of the learner, the beginner, and the novice. In many ways, as we come back together, in masks and with new safety protocols in place, we are learning, once again, how to do what we do. May God grant us grace as we learn and humility as we grow-and may the kingdom of God and love come just a little closer as we do.
Dean Deb