The Hymn Writer Who Called Blindness a Gift

Fanny Crosby lost her sight at six weeks old. A country doctor applied a mustard poultice to treat an eye infection, and the treatment destroyed her vision permanently. She would never see a sunrise, a mother's face, or the words on a hymn sheet.

Yet Crosby went on to write over eight thousand hymns, including Blessed Assurance, To God Be the Glory, and Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour. What stunned people was not her productivity but her perspective. When asked if she resented the doctor's mistake, she said she held no bitterness at all. She believed her blindness was a gift from the Providence of God — that without the distraction of sight, she could see spiritual truths more clearly.

And then she said something that silenced every room where it was repeated: "When I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my dear Saviour."

That is trust. Not the cheerful optimism that pretends nothing is wrong, but the deep-rooted confidence that the Almighty is weaving purpose through even our greatest losses. Crosby did not trust God because her life turned out easy. She trusted Him in the dark — literally — and found that the dark was where her deepest songs were born.

Whatever you cannot see right now — the reason, the outcome, the next step — remember that God has never once asked you to trust what you can see. He asks you to trust the One you will see.