“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!” This hymn may be familiar to you. It is a beautiful song that talks about praising Jesus for the gift of heaven “all the day long.” The second verse of the hymn imagines what heaven will look like. It says, “visions of rapture now burst on my sight.” Those of us who can see beautiful things like mountains and the ocean only have the smallest understanding of the beauty of heaven. But the writer of this hymn, Fanny Crosby, was born in 1820 and became blind as a baby. She grew up not being able to see the world around her. So when she wrote this line, she was not only imagining what heaven would look like, she was imagining what it would be like to SEE.

Even without sight, Fanny wrote almost 9,000 hymns, some of which churches still sing today. She lobbied in New York City for education for those with disabilities. She felt called to serve the poor in urban areas, which she did for many years of her life. She served God faithfully without her sight.She really took to heart the Bible verse that says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” She did not let her disability slow her down. Despite her lack of sight, she spent her days praising Jesus by composing hymns and serving the poor. Fanny reached her world for Jesus, and now she can see in eternity!

This is Luis Palau.