Back on His Feet at Merion

On February 2, 1949, golfer Ben Hogan and his wife Valerie were driving through dense fog near Van Horn, Texas, when a Greyhound bus crossed into their lane. In the split second before impact, Hogan threw himself across his wife to shield her — a move that saved both their lives. He suffered a double fracture of the pelvis, a fractured collarbone, a broken ankle, and near-fatal blood clots. Doctors said he might never walk again, let alone play golf.

For months, Hogan could barely shuffle down a hospital corridor. He wrapped his legs in bandages every morning for the rest of his life just to manage the pain. But sixteen months after that crash, Ben Hogan limped onto the course at Merion Golf Club for the 1950 U.S. Open — and won. He went on to capture five more major championships, playing some of the finest golf the world had ever seen.

Healing rarely looks the way we expect. Hogan never stopped wrapping those legs. The pain never fully left. But he walked, and then he played, and then he won.

The God who heals us does not always remove the wound. Sometimes He does something more remarkable — He teaches us to walk with it, and then to run. As the prophet Isaiah wrote, "Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will run and not grow weary." The Healer meets us not only in the miracle but in the long, faithful morning of learning to stand again.