Advent Music 2: Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming

Featured Hymn
Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming

Hymn #216
Words 15th cent. German;
translated by Theodore Baker
Music from Alte Catholische Geistliche Kirchengesang;
Harmony by Michael Praetorius
Tune Name: ES IST EIN ROS

Symbols are a curious thing. Some have universal meaning. Others are more colloquial, having significance only in a smaller community. Some have both. Many years ago I spoke with a man who had prepared a translation of the Bible in an African language. He had a problem when he came to the phrase, “white as snow.” You see, that community had never seen or experienced snow. There was no word in their language for snow, and adopting a word for snow would have been meaningless. So he spoke with people to find out what one thing was considered to be the purest white. In the Bible translation that he prepared, sins became as “white as popcorn!” Substituting this symbol may sound strange to many of us, but it carried a more powerful meaning for the people receiving the Word in that language.

The rose has been a symbol of many things. Many consider it to be the mightiest and most beautiful of all flowers. It is a symbol of beauty and love. “I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.” (Song of Solomon 2:1) It has been used as the symbol of mighty families. It is also a symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ. The scriptures make a number of references to flowers. Most of them allude to the flower fading and dying away. Unique to Christ, though, is the knowledge that this Rose blooms eternally. From the frail, tender stem of man blooms the beautiful, mighty, eternal Rose.

This week’s featured hymn reaches back through 500 years of tradition to tell with beauty and grace the wonderful story of the coming of the Rose.

This Rose is the Lord for whom we prepare during Advent. Enjoy the beauty and sweetness.

 1. Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming
from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming,
as those of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright,
amid the cold of winter,
when half spent was the night.

2. 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 us a Savior,
when half spent was the night.