Fanny Crosby and the Riches She Could Not See

Fanny Crosby lost her sight at six weeks old due to a doctor's mistake. She never saw a sunset, never read a printed page, never glimpsed the face of a single friend. Yet by the time she died in 1915 at age ninety-four, she had written over eight thousand hymns — more than any other hymnist in history. "Blessed Assurance," "To God Be the Glory," "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior" — these poured from a woman who could not see the hand in front of her face.

When someone once expressed pity for her blindness, Crosby responded with characteristic warmth: "Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I was born blind? Because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior."

She had grasped something Paul prayed the Ephesians would understand — that the unsearchable riches of Christ run deeper than any earthly sense can measure. Crosby could not see, but she knew a love that surpassed knowledge. She lacked sight, yet she was filled with a fullness that sighted people spent lifetimes searching for.

Paul kneels and prays that we would comprehend the width, length, height, and depth of Christ's love. Fanny Crosby did exactly that — not with her eyes, but rooted and grounded in a love so vast it needed no light to find her.