Creating Connections, Chris Grandle

Chris and Becky Grandle outside their home in Stuarts Draft, Virginia

My name is Chris Grandle and I am proof that God makes miracles happen. I am a member of Main Street UMC in Waynesboro and the youngest of three boys born to a schoolteacher mother and a poultry farmer father in Harrisonburg Virginia. In 1954, I was the unexpected baby to which everyone was looking forward after my two brothers were already eight and nine years old. "The pitter-patter of little feet" was missed about the household. But, I am also the surprise that was to manifest for my family, and others, the glory of God's miracles through His creation (John 9:1-7).

Still today, there are approximately 1 in 1500 babies born with Spina Bifida (in layman's terms "open spine") and I am one of that statistic. In 1954 the survival rate of such babies for more than a few weeks was less than 5%. God pulled me through that statistic but I remain paralyzed from the waist down. That's where the miracles began. My mother had a deeply rooted faith and it caused her to argue for raising me in the home and not turning me over to an institution and forgetting about me as recommended by many doctors. Our second miracle came in a doctor who was a protégé of the founder of rehabilitation medicine in the United States. He promised my mom that, though it might be with braces and crutches, he would have me walking by the time I was two which is still unusual even by today's rehab standards. With his knowledge, a medically rebellious nature, and the faith and fortitude of all of my family, and the miracles of God's grace, we reached that goal and many more that I will, given half a chance, gleefully tell you about. Throughout my life God has given me all the talents, support, and wherewithal to deal with the nature of my disability. God has allowed me to attend normal public schools, graduate with an engineering degree from the University of Virginia, remain gainfully employed till retirement, and otherwise allowed me to deal with a world that is architecturally designed primarily for people with two good legs. And God has given me my most precious miracle, my wife of 42 years who appears in the attached photo with me.

We all have disabilities. Some just show. We consider them disabilities because they hamper our independence in living. That's where God's grace comes in. With His grace and the collaboration and support of those around us, we can live to show others what can be done together to do God's work and will in the world. What one person can't do, another can, and even do it with our own special touch because of how God has shown His creation through us. After all, isn't doing God's will, in whatever way it can be done, what He intended for us to do?

-Chris Grandle