A Spirit Connection Between Two Artistic Women of Faith

“The word of the Lord came to me this morning through a dandelion.  It was early morning & I was sitting in a little wood near the Hotel.  The sun was climbing behind a steep cliff to the east, & its light was flooding from a dark corner of purple brown stems & tawny moss, there shown out a great golden star.  It was just a dandelion, & half-withered – but it was full face to the sun, & had caught into its heart all the glory it could hold, & was shining so radiantly that the dew that lay on it still, make a perfect aureole round its head.”   Lilias Trotter Diary July 1901 

“Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus,” one of the most loved and best-known Christian hymns, was written in 1918 by Helen Howarth Lemmel, (1864-1961) a prolific hymn writer and well know singer in the 20^th Century. She was inspired by the devotional writing “Focussed,” and art of Lilias Trotter, (1853-1928) missionary artist to Algeria.

First published in 1922 in London, it came to the United States in 1924 and remains anointed worship around the world. If you’ve been in church, you will recognize this familiar chorus:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.

The amazing behind-the-scenes story of the hymn, is the connection between two artistic women of faith, both listening to the Spirit of God and following their calling, sharing their faith through their passion for  Christ and their artistic talents.

These words of Lilias in a pamphlet Focussed, which was inspired by her reflection on the shining dandelion, captured the heart and spirit of Helen:

“So then, turn your eyes upon Him, look full into His face and you will find that the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness.”

Helen shares this experience after reading the pamphlet: “Suddenly, as if commanded to stop and listen, I stood still, and singing in my soul and spirit was the chorus, with not one conscious moment of putting word to word to make rhyme, or note to note to make melody. The verses were written the same week, after the usual manner of composition, but none the less dictated by the Holy Spirit.”

When the Spirit moves, calls, and falls fresh on us, there can be no doubt about the presence, power and relevance of the Holy Spirit as the driving passion behind all movements of God.

Excerpt from Lilias Trotter’s Focussed

It was in a little wood in early morning.  The sun was climbing behind a steep cliff in the east, and its light was flooding nearer and nearer and then making pools among the trees. Suddenly, from a dark corner of purple brown stems and tawny moss, there shone out a great golden star.  It was just a dandelion, and half withered – but it was full face to the sun, and had caught into its heart all the glory it could hold, and was shining so radiantly that the dew that lay on it still made a perfect aureole round its head.  And it seemed to talk, standing there – to talk about the possibility of making the very best of these lives of ours.

For if the Sun of Righteousness has risen upon our hearts, there is an ocean of grace and love and power lying all around us, an ocean to which all earthly light is but a drop, and it is ready to transfigure us, as the sunshine transfigured the dandelion, and on the same condition – that we stand full face to God.

Gathered up, focussed lives, intent on one aim – Christ – these are the lives on which God can concentrate blessedness.  It is “all for all” by a law as unvarying as any law that governs the material universe…

How do we bring things to a focus in the world of optics?  Not by looking at the things to be dropped, but by looking at the one point that is to be brought out.

Turn full your soul’s vision to Jesus, and look and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him, and the Divine “attrait” (attraction) by which God’s saints are made, even in this 20th century, will lay hold of you.  For “He is worthy” to have all there is to be had in the heart that He has died to win.

REFLECT. Listen to and/or sing the hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” There are many versions online including Lauren Daigle’s version on her Look Up Child Album. What do the words “the things on earth will grow strangely dim” mean to you…as you turn your face to the Lord, what things fade from view?

Look closely at the image of the dandelion which captivated Lilias Trotter imagination to turn her face fully to Christ. Reflect on Psalm 34:4-5 (ESV) I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.

RESOURCES. See full manuscript of Focussed and the videos: An Inspiration of Song and the full movie version of the life and vision of Lilias Trotter, Many Beautiful Things.