Could it ever be a blessing to be blind?

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Rev. 3:17 Jesus speaks of Laodicea as poor, blind and naked, and in another place He said that it would be better to pluck your eye out and go to heaven than to go the other direction with both eyes.

Fanny Crosby, the famous hymn writer considered it a blessing to be blind she was not born blind, but at the age of six weeks she had a minor cold in the eyes. The family physician was gone, and another man came and treated her with a mustard poultice on the eyes, permanently destroying her sight.

Instead of entering into litigation and a malpractice suit, as many would do today, her mother and grandmother (father died before her first birthday) chose instead to focus on teaching and helping Fanny to learn to know and love the Lord, so that she would have spiritual insight.

Later in life, Fanny wrote this poem:

Fanny never became bitter about her blindness. One time a preacher sympathetically remarked, "I think it is a great pity that the Master did not give you sight when He showered so many other gifts upon you." She replied quickly, "Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I should be born blind?" "Why?" asked the surprised clergyman.

"Because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Saviour!"

Fanny was a woman who knew and loved her Saviour. One of her less familiar songs is "My Song Shall Be of Jesus" (Hymnal #244)

1---My Song Shall Be of Jesus (#244) DEB

One of Miss Crosby's hymns was so personal that for years she kept it to herself. Kenneth Osbeck, author of several books on hymnology, says its revelation to the public came about this way: "One day at the Bible conference in Northfield, Massachusetts, Miss Crosby was asked by D. L. Moody to give a personal testimony. At first she hesitated, then quietly rose and said, 'There is one hymn I have written which has never been published. I call it my soul's poem. Sometimes when I am troubled, I repeat it to myself, for it brings comfort to my heart.' She then recited while many wept:

She wrote much about the tender compassion and grace of God, but she also knew Him as a powerful King, as is revealed in Hymn # 7, The Lord in Zion Reigneth.

At the age of 60, Fanny began a new career as a home mission worker, working down in the Bowery. You know the old song about "The Bowery, the Bowery, they say such things and they do strange things in the Bowery, I'll never go there anymore!" Well, Fanny didn't consider herself too good to spend time in the Bowery. She worked several days each week at a mission there, and the story is told of how she came to write the hymn "Rescue the Perishing."

A man came into a service and sat down in front of her. First she prayed quietly, and then she began to speak to him.

While she was riding home, the lines of Rescue the Perishing (#367) formed in her mind, and before retiring that evening, she had dictated them to a friend. The next morning she sent them to a friend, William H. Doane, who composed the tune.

3---Rescue the Perishing (#367) Congregation

The next song carries on the theme of salvation, for Fanny knew it wasn't only the destitute Bowery dwellers who needed salvation. Although she had known Jesus from her childhood, it wasn't until the age of 31 that she considered herself truly converted. It happened this way:

With all of her apparent devotion to Christ already shared in so many ways, it is hard to believe that she was not converted until 1851, age 31. This glorious beginning happened at a revival service held at the old John Street Methodist Church in New York which she joined. Recalling the incident years later, she said:
"After a prayer was offered, they began to sing the grand old consecration hymn:

She wrote of Jesus as a Saviour to herself, just as much as to anyone else. Notice in the hymn we call "He Hideth My Soul" (#520), that the first two stanzas begin with the words "A wonderful Saviour is Jesus my Lord."

4---"He Hideth My Soul" (#520), DEB

Throughout her long life, this woman who was so richly blessed with sight beyond ours maintained her faith and a close walk with the Lord. At the age of 95 Fanny Crosby passed on and on grave in Bridgeport, Conn., there is a simple little headstone with the name "Aunt Fanny," and these words: