The Hymn Writer Who Trusted What She Could Not See

In 1873, composer Phoebe Knapp sat down at her piano and played a new melody for her friend Fanny Crosby. "What does this tune say to you?" Knapp asked.

Without hesitation, Fanny replied: "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!"

What makes this moment remarkable is what Fanny Crosby could not do. She could not see the piano keys. She could not read a single note of music. She could not see her friend's face. Fanny had been blind since she was six weeks old, after a botched medical treatment destroyed her sight.

Yet this woman who lived her entire life in darkness wrote over eight thousand hymns about light, glory, and the faithfulness of God. She once said, "It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank Him for the dispensation."

That is trust — not a vague optimism that everything will work out, but a settled confidence in the character of the Almighty, even when you cannot see what He is doing.

Most of us will never face Fanny Crosby's darkness. But all of us will face moments when we cannot see what God is up to. In those moments, trust is not about seeing the plan. It is about knowing the One who holds it.