Isaiah has so much to say about the Advent season – actually, I think you’ll learn more about Advent and the season of preparation from Isaiah than you do in the Gospels. And that’s okey ka-dokey with me. Advent is about making a place for the King – something that I certainly need to do every day of my life.
So, behold the One who is coming, who prophets foretold, who angels announced, and who stands before us, asking what you will do in the presence of the King of Kings?
He is here. Alleluia.
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 flow’ret 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 men a Savior,
When half spent was the night.
This Flow’r, 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.
– Lo How A Rose e’er Blooming, Traditional German carol, pub.1599, tr. by Theodore Baker, 1894, v. 3 by Friedrich Layritz, 1844, tr. v. 3 by Harriet R. Krauth, 1875