Poems
Poem writing began for L.A. Eaton when she decided to write a poem a day in her journal. These consisted mostly of rhyming lines and many of the poems are not titled. She learned more about free verse in a college class and won third place for three of her poems in a writing contest.
Untitled (one that won an award)
Forever free
Oh, to only be
Like a ripple on the sea,
Floating, moving on a breeze
Roaming forever free
Oh, to only be
A paddle dipped gently,
Gliding through water effortlessly
Moving forever free
Oh, to only be
On shore a stately tree
Watching the view breathlessly
Standing forever free
Oh, to only be
What God wants of me,
Covered in His mercy
Living forever free.
Inspirational Writings
L.A. Eaton takes everyday events or items and weaves them into devotional type writings that uplift, encourage and provoke thought.
Picture This!
Written June 19, 2012, while spending time in the Word.
I love when the Lord paints a picture for me that I really get. He uses earthly things to help describe heavenly things; He often spoke in parables, but often the meaning escapes us. This time it didn’t!
God used the greenhouse here at Zachar Bay Lodge to show me what “born again” looks like. I say looks like because I have a vague understanding of it in “words”, but never in a “picture.”
I’ve been reading in John 3. Poor Nicodemus doesn’t understand Jesus saying we need to be born again. Nicodemus is thinking in earthly terms; we should never let human thinking try to explain the things of God. Nicodemus wanted to understand, to figure it out, but one cannot figure out salvation or work for it. It is not something to accomplish; it is something we are given.
That isn’t to say we shouldn’t study the Bible and ask the Holy Spirit for understanding. I understand being born again is a spiritual rebirth – not another physical one. I understand when Adam and Eve sinned spiritual death was immediate, for God and sin do not reside together. I understand that to be “born again” from above, Jesus’s death was necessary to pay for that sin, to cover it and remove it. Only when you believe Jesus did that can God’s Spirit enter in, for once sin is gone God can take up residence. It is trusting God more than yourself – faith is believing in what you cannot see (or explain – like the wind).
Even knowing all that, I didn’t have a mental picture, until I read a commentary by Matthew Henry. He said, “Born again is a beginning anew. You don’t patch up the old building, but you begin from a new foundation.” Instantly my mind went to Zachar Bay’s greenhouse. It is old and has always need patching- up, but this cold long winter has been extra hard on it. It settled some and the door no longer closes properly, and the ramp to it has pulled away on one side.
You could shave a bit off the door to make it close properly and fix the ramp. Painting always freshens a place, and then the broken window could be replaced. Putting on a new roof that would be airtight would help hold the heat in on those chilly Spring days and the long rainy periods. You could really improve it, making it function more effectively as well as improving its looks, but there would still be one problem . . . the foundation. The soft ground it sits on has over the years caused the pilings on which it rests to continually lean. Another hard winter or a good earthquake and the building might just slide off the piling altogether. It needs more than patching up; it needs a new foundation.
It is like that with us. We can improve our “looks” and even work on improving our behavior but the spirit within remains on a shaky foundation. Our foundation remains that of earth, soil.
Henry states, “By our first birth we are corrupt, seeped in sin and iniquity (flesh bears flesh); we must, therefore, undergo a second birth, wherein our souls are fashioned and enlivened anew (that born of the Spirit is Spirit).”
I think all can agree it is our soul, our spirit, that remains after death, not our flesh. It is the foundation of who we are, not our body. It is this that needs to be made alive. Going to church, reading the Bible, being devoted to a church or group is simply patching up the building. What is really needed is a new foundation; being born again “has its rise from heaven and its tendency to heaven. Regeneration is absolutely necessary to our happiness here and after. We need to be born to a divine life – a life of communion with God” (Henry). DIVINE. LASTING. “But the righteous (with God . . . not with man) has an everlasting foundation.” Proverbs 10:25 Jesus is that foundation.
A new greenhouse is being built. I have often thought that the new greenhouse should have been better located next to the kitchen as we mostly grow lettuce to serve our guests. It would be handy for the cook and centrally located. However, it is being built on the hill next to Dad and Mom’s house. As I meditated on Henry’s words, I realized God had given me another “picture”. On the hill, the greenhouse will lay on bedrock. It originally started in a wet, soft area and now its foundation will be on solid rock! We need to do that with our lives. We start out in the flesh and then are reborn to the Spirit. We start out on sinking sand and rebuild on solid rock. Jesus is that Rock!
Jesus is our foundation. Whatever is then built on this foundation whether by ourselves or other human teachers, Jesus will remain in the end. Our building materials – gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay and stubble – may or may not last (1 Corinthians 3:10-15) when our building is “tested” by fire. “If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved” . . . because the foundation is secure!
Our foundation needs changing. We can depend on ourselves and find death, or we can be born again and have a foundation that is unshakable!
Now I have a picture of being born again!