The Hymn Writer Who Trusted from the Cradle

When Fanny Crosby was just six weeks old, a doctor's mistake left her permanently blind. By the time she was a year old, her father was dead. The world had given this infant from Southeast, New York, every reason to grow bitter. Instead, her grandmother placed a Bible in her hands — or rather, placed its words in her ears — reading Scripture aloud until young Fanny had memorized entire books by heart. By age eight, she wrote her first poem: "Oh, what a happy soul I am, although I cannot see. I am resolved that in this world, contented I will be."

That resolve never wavered. Over ninety-four years of blindness, Fanny Crosby composed more than eight thousand hymns, including "Blessed Assurance" and "To God Be the Glory." When asked if she wished her sight could be restored, she replied that the first face she ever wanted to see was the face of her Savior.

The psalmist wrote, "Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are He who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you." Fanny Crosby lived those words. She did not wait for circumstances to improve before she trusted the Almighty. She leaned on Him from the very beginning — and her praise never stopped. That is what it looks like when God becomes your rock and your refuge not as a last resort, but as a first and lifelong home.