a poem for times of transformation

A friend sent me this devotional poem in a time of darkness. She did not know but my heavenly Father did and ministered to me through this sweet fragrance of His grace.

Beside my cottage door it grows, The loveliest, daintiest flower that blooms, A sweet brier rose. At dewy morn or twilight’s close, The rarest perfume from it flows, This strange wild rose. But when the raindrops on it beat, Ah, then, its odors grow more sweet, About my feet. Often with loving tenderness, Its soft green leaves I gently press, In sweet caress. A still more wondrous fragrance flows, The more my fingers close, And crush the rose. Dear Lord, oh let my life be so, Its perfume when stronger winds blow, The sweeter flow. And should it be Your blessed will, With crushing grief my soul to fill, Press harder still. And while its dying fragrance flows, I’ll whisper low, “He loves and knows His crushed brier rose.”

I always encourage my children to learn more information about subjects. This poem's author may have studied some attributes of this rose which I share with you. Now, an appropriate application and delicate reminder would be to plant a Sweet Briar Rose. Botanical: Rosa rubiginosa

The flowers of the Sweet Briar are a little smaller than those of the Dog Rose and generally of a deeper hue, though of a richer tint in some plants than in others. They are in bloom during June and July. The fruit is eggshaped, its broadest part being uppermost or farthest from the stem.

The specific name rubiginosa signifies, in Latin, 'rusty,' the plant having been thus named as both stems and leaves are often of a brownish-red tint. It delights in open copses, though is sometimes found also in old hedgerows and is more specially met with in chalk districts in the south of England.

Its fragrance of foliage is peculiarly its own and has led to it holding a cherished place in many old gardens. Under its older name of Eglantine its praises have been sung by poets.

It takes a shower to bring out the full sweetness of Sweet Briar, when its strong and refreshing fragrance will fill the air and be borne a long distance by the breeze. Though the leaves are so highly odorous, the flowers are almost entirely without scent.

Sweet Briar only obtains a place among perfumes in name, for like many other sweetscented plants, it does not repay the labour of collecting its odour, the fragrant part of the plant being destroyed more or less under treatment. An Essence under this name is, however, prepared, compounded of various floral essences so blended as to resemble the spicy fragrance of the growing plant. In olden days the Sweet Briar was used medicinally.

Information and image obtained from

http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/r/roses-18.html

poem from "Streams in the Desert", compiled by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman