Walking Again on Broken Legs

In February 1949, Ben Hogan was the best golfer in the world. He had already won three major championships. Then a Greyhound bus slammed head-on into his car on a foggy Texas highway. Hogan threw himself across his wife to shield her — a decision that saved his life when the steering column crushed through the driver's seat. Doctors said he might never walk again. His legs were shattered, his pelvis fractured, blood clots threatened his life.

Sixteen months later, Ben Hogan walked onto the course at Merion Golf Club for the 1950 U.S. Open. His legs were wrapped in bandages. He could barely stand for eighteen holes, let alone thirty-six. But he played. And he won. He went on to capture six more major championships after the accident — more than he had won before it.

This is what the God of restoration does. He does not simply return us to where we were before the crash. He brings us back stronger. The prophet Joel heard the Almighty declare, "I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten." Not just patch the damage — restore the years.

Maybe life has hit you head-on. Maybe you are wrapped in bandages wondering if you will ever walk again. The same God who mended broken bones in that Texas hospital is mending broken lives in this room today. Your wreckage is not your ending. In the hands of Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals, it is your beginning.