Lo! How a Rose E'er Blooming

I just sat down at my computer, wondering what poem I would choose today for Poetry Wednesday. I grabbed the hymnal (conveniently located because of the season), and opened it to the Christmas hymns. These are always great 'go-to' poems during the Christmas season.

The hymnal opened to #174 "Lo! How a Rose E'er Blooming." This is not a song which I remember with great fondness from my childhood. I barely remember hearing it until I got First Call's "An Evening in December" album early in my marriage.

Now it is one of my favorites. Perhaps because I appreciate the words; perhaps because I adore their acapella rendition of it.

As a read over the words today I thought, "I wonder if I have a picture of a rose somewhere I could use?" Then I remembered snapping a few pictures of the last of the roses from my dad's bushes.

(Just as an aside, it's amazing how parents change as they grow up. My dad always mowed the lawn, but that was it. Since he retired from his summer job several (many?) years ago, he's now more than a lawn-mower. He is an avid gardener. It's amazing. These rose bushes have been at the side of their house since I was eight and we first moved there. With my dad's recent attention, they are producing beautiful roses, and nearly every year bloom until the beginning of November. I never would have guessed my dad would turn into a gardener.)

The rose above was one of those November blooms which graced the table of our fall family gathering the first weekend of November. Beautiful, isn't it?

Lo! How a Rose E'er Blooming
Traditional German Carol

Lo, how a rose e'er blooming
From tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse's lineage coming
As men of old have sung.
It came, a flower bright,
Amid the cold of winter,
When half-sprung was the night.

Isaiah 'twas foretold it,
The rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it,
The virgin mother kind.
To show God's love aright
She bore to men a Savior,
When half-gone was the night.

The flower, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
The darkness everywhere.
True man, yet very God,
From sin and death He saves us
And lightens every load.