A Rose e'er blooming

This rose, just outside my laundry room window, caught at my heart the other day. Blighted and frozen, snow settled into its petals, its summer loveliness only a memory, it seemed to speak of bright hopes crushed and broken.

How often life can mock us like this, as though all the beauty and joy we long for is buried deep under the cold,

frozen spell of winter. When things seem hopeless.

But I am reminded that there is a Rose that ever blooms, even in the midst of cold winter. This old German Christmas carol reminds us of the Hope we have.

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 floweret bright,

  Amid the cold of winter,

When half spent 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 us a Savior,

 When half spent was the night

.

O Flower, whose fragrance tender,

  With sweetness fills the air,

  Dispel with glorious splendor,

  The darkness everywhere.

  True man, yet very God,

  From sin and death now save us,

  And share our every load.

What a beautiful picture of a Rose, its loveliness in full bloom, amidst the cold branches laden with snow and ice. I can look outside my laundry room window, and be reminded that things are not always what they seem.

I am linking up today with Emily at http://www.chattingatthesky.com/ for Tuesdays Unwrapped.