Lilias Trotter (1853-1928) was a self-taught artist. Her mother sent several of Lilias’ paintings to a foremost art critic, John Ruskin, who recognized her colossal talent. He claimed that under his tutelage, Lilias could become the most famous American painter of the nineteenth century. Yet Lilias also sensed God’s call to take the gospel to Algeria. When a representative from the North African Mission asked people in her church, “Is there anyone in the house whom God is calling to North Africa?” Lilias rose to announce, “He is calling me.” When she was turned down for health reasons, she used her own financial resources to work for the same mission agency. In 1888, Lilias and two other financially independent women arrived in Algeria. She writes of the moment, “The three of us stood there, none of us fit to pass a physical, not knowing a soul in the place, one sentence of Arabic or a clue for beginning the work. Truly, if God needed weakness, he had it.” She described their early years as “knocking our heads against stone walls.” Still, they persevered. Lilias devoted forty years of her life serving Christ in a French colony (which resented England) bringing the light and love of Jesus to Arab Muslim people (who resented Christians). Talk about hard!
While on furlough from her mission, she composed and illustrated a devotional classic Parables of the Cross. She invited readers to take the hardest thing in their lives and give it to God. She wrote of prayer, “When God delays in fulfilling our little thoughts, it is to give Himself room to work out his great ones.” A prayer from Parables from the Cross follows here: