The Blind Hymn Writer Who Lacked Nothing

When Frances Jane Crosby lost her sight at six weeks old due to a doctor's tragic error, no one in her small New York village imagined what God had already set in motion. Born in 1820 in Southeast, Putnam County, Fanny Crosby might have seemed, by every earthly measure, profoundly lacking.

Yet the Almighty had called her — and He would prove faithful.

By the time she was ten, Fanny had memorized the first four books of the Bible. By twenty-three, she was teaching at the New York Institution for the Blind. And over her ninety-four years, she composed more than eight thousand hymns, including "Blessed Assurance" and "To God Be the Glory." When asked whether she resented her blindness, she replied, "If I had been given a choice at birth, I would have asked to be blind, for when I get to heaven, the first face I will see will be the face of my Savior."

Paul opens his letter to the fractured Corinthian church not with rebuke but with a staggering reminder: you have been enriched in every way. You are not lacking in any spiritual gift. God, who called you into fellowship with His Son, is faithful.

Fanny Crosby understood this. The God who called her did not leave her unequipped. He never does. Whatever we think we lack, El Shaddai — God All-Sufficient — has already provided everything needed for the calling He has spoken over our lives.