DEVOTION/ Sight for the Blind

Meet Fanny Crosby

 Blindness is a difficult condition that affects many people. Statistics tell us that worldwide nearly 50 million people are blind and 285 million are visually impaired. To those who have sight, blindness is nearly impossible to imagine.  

Fanny Crosby was a remarkable woman. Born in 1820, Fanny suffered blindness after being misdiagnosed for an eye ailment as a young child. Her father died when she was very young, so she was raised by her mother and grandmother. At age 15, Fanny was enrolled in a new school for the blind in New York City. There she stayed for the next 18 years as a student and eventually as a teacher. Because of her love for writing poetry, she was often asked to recite her poems for famous visitors, including several presidents. In 1843, Fanny became the first woman to be invited to address the U.S. Senate. In her thirties, she married a blind musician. Their only child died in infancy.

It wasn’t until Ms. Crosby was in her forties that she found enjoyment in writing lyrics to Christian hymns. She became so proficient that she wrote under 72 pen names so it wouldn’t seem that all the new hymns of that time were written by the same individual. It was said that once when she was hired to write a dozen songs for a new hymnbook, she memorized the entire collection and recited all twelve back to back. Fanny died at the age of 95 having written over 10,000 hymns! She once said, “If I had been given a choice at birth, I would have asked to be blind, so when I get to heaven, the first face I see will be the one who died for me.” Some of Fanny’s hymns include “Blessed Assurance,” “To God Be the Glory,” and “Take the World, but Give Me Jesus.”

 Spiritual blindness

 Sadly there are two types of blindness. We spoke of physical blindness. But there is one far worse—spiritual blindness. Those who are spiritually blind cannot see the love of God, the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross, or the hope we have of heaven. Second Corinthians 4:4 says, The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ. This blindness is far more serious than Fanny Crosby’s. We must continually strive to share the light of Christ with the spiritually blind. God has promised, The LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous (Psalm 146:8).

by Reynold R. Kremer