I was about 4 months old when I broke my first bone. I was born witha disease called osteogenesis imperfect tarda(OI), sometimes referred to as brittle bone disease. No one knew I had a broken leg, or much about OI, at that time. 

A few months after it had healed, I broke the same leg again, but this time there was no mistake that it had broken. While visiting with some relatives, the person holding me leaned against a table. My leg caught in between, and everyone heard the snap of my leg breaking and the loud cries that followed.

Because not much was known about OI when I was a child, our physician, Dr. Young, did not know much about the disease. My parents remember that he still did his best to understand it. He read up on OI and offered to continue to treat me any time I had a broken bone. Dr. Young was kind and did his best to accommodate our financial situation and my OI.

It took many years for me to see that God was involved in everything that occurred in my young life. He placed the people in my life that needed to be there. The Bible led me to believe in that promise. “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Ps. 139:16).

Dr. Young explained to my parents that it was important to let me live as normally as possible. He said that the tendency for parents of a child with OI was to be overprotective—being able to still go outside was important. Between the ages of 3 months and 15 years I had more than 50 broken bones. I was put in traction—an orthopedic treatment for fractures for my arms and legs—twice, and had to learn to walk again.

At times I hated OI. I wondered why God would allow me to suffer and endure all the pain and hurt. Even more, I wondered if God understood all the emotional pain I had to endure when kids in the neighborhood or at school made fun of me or called me names. It was much later in my life that I understood what Jesus meant when He answered the question of His disciples in John 9:1-3:

“And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (KJV).

God was always looking after me, and His care never ceased. Even now, in my late 50s, when my symptoms have reappeared to a lesser degree, I know that God is still actively involved and leading my life.

I’ve learned to live as normal a life as possible and to claim God’s promises as my own. He fulfilled those promises and has allowed me to live life more abundantly than I would have ever imagined. I have a living God who has promised to see me through all life’s trials and finally take me to the place He has prepared for me. I believe God’s Word and His many promises; they have never failed.

“ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ ” (Jer. 29:11). n

S. R. Morris writes from Mountain Home, Idaho.