The Blind Woman Who Taught the World to Sing

In the parlor of a modest New York City apartment in 1875, Fanny Crosby sat at a small writing desk, her sightless eyes turned toward a window she had never seen through. She had been blind since six weeks old, when a country doctor's mustard poultice destroyed her infant eyes. Now fifty-five, she dipped her pen and began composing what would become one of more than eight thousand hymns — more than any other American hymnwriter in history.

Publishers like Biglow & Main sometimes asked her to use pseudonyms because they were embarrassed to print so many hymns by one author. She used over two hundred pen names and never complained. When well-meaning friends expressed pity for her blindness, Crosby replied with startling conviction: "It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank Him for the dispensation. If I could meet the doctor who destroyed my sight, I would say, 'Thank you.' For it was through losing my sight that I learned to see with the eyes of faith."

She did not write in spite of her weakness. She wrote through it.

Paul understood this. "My grace is sufficient for you," the Lord told him, "for My power is made perfect in weakness." Fanny Crosby lived that verse for ninety-four years. Her blindness did not diminish her gift — it became the very channel through which the Almighty poured out songs that millions still sing today. Sometimes the deepest sight comes only when earthly vision is taken away.