A City and a Quarterback, Mended Together

On the last day of 2005, Drew Brees crumpled to the turf in San Diego with a torn labrum and damaged rotator cuff in his throwing shoulder. Surgeons repaired what they could, but the Chargers decided the risk was too great. They let him go. The Miami Dolphins examined him and walked away too. Two teams looked at the damage and saw a career that was finished.

Then New Orleans called.

It was a city still gutted from Hurricane Katrina, with tarps on rooftops and waterlines stained on the walls of houses. The Saints had played their entire previous season in exile. When Brees arrived in March 2006, he found a franchise and a community that understood brokenness from the inside out. A wounded quarterback chose a wounded city, and they healed together.

Four years later, Brees led the Saints to their first Super Bowl championship, and the Superdome — once a shelter of last resort during the storm — became the site of the greatest celebration New Orleans had ever known.

God does not restore us in isolation. He places us among others who carry their own fractures, and the mending happens together. The Apostle Paul called it the body of Christ — each member bearing the other's weakness, each made stronger in the joining. The Most High rarely heals us so we can stand alone. He heals us so we can stand with someone.