A Blossom in the Desert: Reflections of Faith in the Art and Writings of Lilias Trotter

I bought this book for my wife and she not only has enjoyed it immensely and is using it as part of her daily devotional, but the artwork and quality of this volume is extremely high. I heartily recommend it to every believer.

My first introduction to Lilias Trotter came when I read Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God by Noel Piper. I remember thinking at the time how wonderful it would be to actually see some of Trotter's art and read her writings. Sadly, her books are out of print and her paintings and sketchbooks are hidden away in the Print Room of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. Miriam Huffman Rockness, however, set out on the long, arduous journey of finding Trotter's journals, diaries, out-of-print books, and art. She has given us a gift in A Blossom in the Desert: Reflections of Faith in the Art and Writings of Lilias Trotter. A Blossom in the Desert begins with a testimony from Rockness of how she first came to know, admire, and seek out the work of Lilias Trotter to fulfill her vision of seeing Trotter in print again. It is a story of God's providence. After reading this collection, I am convinced God is pleased with the unearthing of Trotter's work and will be glorified if more of His people follow her exemplary life. Trotter's mentor promised that "she would be the greatest living painter and do things that would be Immortal." In Trotter's mind, "to be Immortal" would mean she would have to "give herself up to art." She wrote, "I see clear as daylight now, I cannot give myself to painting in the way he means and continue to 'seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness.'" She forsook all the fame and riches of this world, the approval of her friends and family, to follow Christ in ministering to young Muslim girls and women in northern Africa. It was her habit to spend the early hours of every morning in a quiet spot outside, communing with God through His Word and His Creation. While the quotes shared in this book demonstrate Trotter's spiritual depth and ability to synthesize God's word and creation to teach truth, her sketches and paintings demonstrate her eye for the unspeakable beauty of God's creation. "Stamped on every page of her diaries and journals is a woman fully immersed in the practical realities of everyday living, even as she is totally engaged in assimilating these realities through an eternal perspective. It is from the tensions of these two realities, the seen and the unseen, that hard spiritual truths are hammered out." Alongside a meditation of Jesus as the Living Water you will find a delicate watercolor of an African water well, bubbling up from the ground. I like to think that daisies portrayed in the book were the very ones that "spoke" to Trotter of "the need of deliberately holding back everything that would crowd our souls and stifle the freedom of God's light and air." Rockness organizes the sketches, paintings and quotes around three themes: The Light of Jesus, The Life of Jesus, and The Love of Jesus, three things Trotter lived for others to come and see. A Blossom in the Desert is a beautiful collection, one that I will treasure. Though it isn't designed to be a devotional per se,

From start to finish this beautiful book communicates inspiration in the best sense --- hope, love, faith --- strength for the journey. Open to any page and you find full-color art and full-bodied words, both presented by the hand of a truly original Victorian woman. Who was Lilias Trotter (1853-1928)? As a young gentrified woman in London, she grew dissatisfied with her privileged life and helped establish a hostel for poor women, which eventually led to the founding of the YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association). On the side she was drawing and painting. Her artwork came to the attention of --- and quite astounded --- art critic John Ruskin. As Ruskin pushed her to "give herself up to art," Trotter responded rather to a spiritual nudge to abandon art training and its potential fame and move to Algeria to share the light and love of Christ in the North African desert. (For more details, see my review of Miriam Huffman Rockness's 2003 biography of Trotter, A PASSION FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE.) Yet Trotter never lost her appreciation for the beauty of creation and architectural forms. She never stopped her eye and hand from artistically interpreting what she viewed, whether on holiday in the Alps or at home in the desert. For 30 years Trotter "kept" a page-a-day diary in which she reflected on and painted her world. From these diaries, sketchbooks and some illustrated booklets, Rockness has produced this stunning devotional scrapbook, organized in three sections: light, love and faith. Each two-page spread features one or more watercolors, along with a Bible verse and a Trotter reflection. The words: The most delightful selections are short lessons and parables drawn from nature. "The daisies have been talking again..." "`I came into deep waters' took on a new meaning this morning..." "Have we learned the buttercup's lesson yet?... Are all things --- even the treasures that He has sanctified --- held loosely...?" Then there is the spot-on simile or metaphor: "The baby new moon was hanging in the sunset tonight like a boat for the little angels." The reflections declare God's presence and tender care, even in times of loneliness or discouragement. The art: Many landscapes are squared and "finished." Some florals are more like marginal notes or doodles on a page. (Sometimes Trotter's fountain-pen script has seeped through a diary page, but I did not find this distracting; rather, it served to portray her personality and draw out her spiritual presence.) It is occasionally disconcerting to have an Alps mountain scene directly follow an arid desert landscape. When reading the book straight through, I quickly learned to pause and take a breath before turning the page; in terms of the book's progression, art clearly follows text and theme. A BLOSSOM IN THE DESERT is a beautiful gift book (for lovers of art or metaphor) and more. It is a devotional to inspire and savor. --- Reviewed by Evelyn Bence

"Did you know your dream has come true? There's a book of Lilias Trotter's art now--A Blossom in the Desert," I emailed a friend last week. Miriam Rockness, who edited this book, earlier wrote the book that introduced me to Lilias Trotter, A Passion for the Impossible. I was so inspired by her story that I included it in Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God. We who admire Lilias Trotter have waited a long time actually to see her artwork. Until now, it was hidden away in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford University and in the archives of the Arab World Ministries. We owe a huge debt to Rockness for laboring to bring these exquisite works to the public. Lilias Trotter was an upper-class English woman of the Victorian era whose drawings and water colors were admired by John Ruskin, the art authority of the day. He foresaw for her a life of glory and fame if she devoted herself to her art. Instead, she turned her back on that dream and followed the calling of God to Algeria, arriving in 1888 and dying there 40 years later. As so often happens, she discovered that God wasn't asking her to give up her talent, but to use it in a different place for different purposes. Among other things, she often illustrated her journal entries and the letters she sent home with her artwork, a visual treasure of North Africa as it was then. She also wrote several small books of meditations, often springing from her observations of nature and always illustrated with her drawings. A Blossom in the Desert is filled with Lilias Trotter's love of God and of the place and people he gave her in Algeria. With the eye of a true artist, she sees God's fingerprint everywhere she looks. "Oh, the desert is lovely in its restfulness. The great brooding stillness over and through everything is so full of God. One does not wonder that He used to take His people out into the wilderness to teach them." I find here a passage that remains with me years after first reading it: "'I am come into deep waters' took on new meaning this morning. It started with perplexing matters concerning the future. Then it dawned that shallow waters were a place where you can neither sink nor swim, but in deep waters it is one or the other: "Waters to swim in"--not to float in. Swimming is the intense, most strenuous form of motion--all of you is involved in it--and every inch of you is in abandonment of rest upon the water that bears you up." This book is a treasure.

This lovely book is one that you will treasure! The pages include Lilias Trotter's beautiful watercolor paintings and her deeply edifying writings accompany each picture. Her spiritual insight was truly a gift from God and she was able to teach truths through the life cycle of plants, trees, seeds - the natural consequences of life and death. This book is one that is priceless, one that you will read over and over if you want to grow closer to God through Jesus Christ.