Fanny Crosby

Oh, what a happy soul am I!

Although I cannot see,

I am resolved that in this world

contented I will be.

How many blessings I enjoy,

that other people don’t;

to weep and sigh because I’m blind,

I cannot, and I won’t!

This marvelous poem was written by an eight-year-old blind girl who grew up to change and encourage the lives of others through her poetry. Frances Jane Crosby, the only child of John and Mercy Crosby, was born on March 24, 1820, in the small town of Southeast, New York. When she was just six weeks old, Fanny came down with an eye inflammation. A physician prescribed hot poultices that left her incurably blind. After the death of Fanny’s father, she was raised by her mother and grandmother. At the age of 15, she entered the New York Institution for the Blind, and, after graduating from the school, she then taught there for 11 years. Although Fanny had always been a religious person, it wasn’t until 1851, when she was 31 years old, that she gave her life fully to God. Fanny wrote many poems and popular songs, but in 1864 a friend suggested she try writing gospel songs and she found the work God had meant for her to do. From that point until her death on February 12, 1915, she wrote between 5500 and 9000 hymns. Fanny Crosby was an amazing woman, and I consider her to be one of my heroes. She had many godly characteristics in her life that serve as examples. Three of these characteristics are her humility, her care and concern for others, and her joyfulness.

Fanny Crosby was a very humble woman. In order to protect her modesty, she used upward of 200 pseudonyms. Obviously, she felt that although the hymns should be published they should not bear her name or she may come to think too highly of herself. D.L. Moody, who was a friend and often had her hymns sung at his evangelistic meetings, was one of the many people who disagreed, thinking she should be recognized for her wonderful work. Never the less, whenever Fanny attended a meeting, she refused to be acknowledged as the author of the hymns that were sung. Some people may see this as prideful, but she refused recognition because she wanted God to have all the glory.

When I read about Fanny Crosby, something that stands out to me is her care and concern for others. One evening, while speaking at a mission, she felt that “some mother’s boy needed to be saved that night or not at all”. Concerned, she mentioned this to the audience. Afterward, a young man came up to her and told her he had promised his mother to meet her in heaven, but had since walked away from God. Fanny had the privilege of leading the young man to the Lord. She then went home and wrote the hymn Rescue the Perishing. This story illustrates Fanny’s care and concern for the lives and souls of other people.

Of all the amazing characteristics of Fanny Crosby’s life, the most extraordinary one to me is her joy through her life-long trial of blindness. As a child, she didn’t let the fact that she was blind make her different from the other children. She played like and with them, even riding the colts bareback. In the poem she wrote when she was 8, she said she was “happy” and “contented” even though she was blind. Later in life she said, “Blindness can not keep the sunlight of hope from the trusting soul. One of the easiest resolves that I formed in my young and joyous heart was to leave all care to yesterday and to believe that the morning would bring forth its own peculiar joy”. Fanny also told people that a blessing of being blind was that when she arrived in Heaven, the first face she would see would be that of her Savior, Jesus Christ. Throughout her life Fanny Crosby demonstrated joy through her blindness.

Humble, caring, and joyful, Fanny Crosby lived a life that glorified God. As one of my heroes, she serves as an example to me of what can be done with a life that is given fully to God. Even though she was blind, God used Fanny Crosby to encourage others and bring them closer to Him. Undoubtedly, she would not like being called someone’s hero, but I consider her to be a role model and an encouragement. I hope to meet Fanny Crosby someday in Heaven and sing her wonderful hymns with her.