The Father Who Became His Son's Legs

In 1977, Rick Hoyt told his father Dick something that changed both their lives. Rick, born with cerebral palsy and unable to walk or speak, used a special computer to type out five words: "Dad, I want to run."

Dick Hoyt was no runner. He was a retired military officer in his mid-thirties. But love does not calculate the cost. He built a custom wheelchair and pushed his son through a five-mile charity race. They finished second to last. That night, Rick typed: "Dad, when we run, it feels like my disability disappears."

That sentence kept Dick Hoyt running for over forty years. Together, Team Hoyt completed more than one thousand races, including thirty-two Boston Marathons and six Ironman triathlons. Picture that — a father swimming 2.4 miles pulling his son in a boat, cycling 112 miles with Rick riding on the handlebars, then pushing his wheelchair 26.2 miles. Not for a trophy. Not for fame. For the joy of watching his son feel free.

The Apostle Paul writes that love "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." Dick Hoyt bore his son's weight across every finish line because love does not count the miles.

This is what the love of God looks like. The Almighty does not wait for us to become capable. He carries us — not because we earned it, but because hearing us say "I want to run" is enough.