I get teary-eyed when “Safe in the Arms of Jesus” plays from my Spotify playlist. The particular version is sung by Michael and Meghan O’ Brien, but the song was originally written by Fanny Crosby. I’m told my mom chose to have it sung at my twin sister’s funeral, but as an eight-year-old reeling from a sudden loss, I didn’t attend.
Crosby is said to have written over 8,000 hymns during her life, and many of her songs are classics with lyrics that still touch people’s lives. Crosby was blind from the time she was a young baby. Then her father passed away when she was just six months old. She is said to have written her first poem at just eight years old.
In spite of her blindness, she learned to play many different instruments, memorised large portions of Scripture, and attended the New York Institution for the Blind, where she eventually joined the faculty. Crosby married Alexander van Alstyne, who was also blind and attended and later also taught at the New York Institute for the Blind. They had a daughter together, but their infant baby passed away in her sleep. It was this tragic loss that led Crosby to pen the words to the song, “Safe in the Arms of Jesus.”
So much of Crosby’s life was touched by tragedy. Her marriage even became strained to the point that she and her husband eventually ended up living separately. So when I listen to the words of “Safe in the Arms of Jesus,” it is hard not to feel the emotion, knowing both the connection it has to my own life and the pain its composer must have felt as she wrote it.
And yet, the song gives me hope. It is a reminder that the Saviour never leaves, even when circumstances can feel devastating. We are safe in His arms. As Crosby wrote:
“Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on his gentle breast,
There by His love o’ershaded,
Sweetly my soul shall rest.”
Crosby actually came to see her blindness as a gift, saying that if someone offered her perfect sight, she would not accept it. Without her blindness, she felt that she might not have entered so deeply into writing hymns—hymns that are a gift that continue to bless so many today.
Like Crosby, may you rest in the knowledge today that, despite your circumstances, you are safe in your Father’s arms.
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