Daniel Ritchie was born without arms, a reality that nearly cost him his life. In the delivery room, a doctor asked his father if he should “let him go.” Ritchie’s dad refused. He chose life, insisting doctors do everything possible to save his son.
Decades later, Ritchie says that single decision shaped everything that followed.
“There’s no way in the world my dad could have imagined what God has brought about through that one sentence,” Ritchie has said. Now a married father of two with an in-demand speaking ministry, Ritchie regularly shares how that moment gave him the opportunity to proclaim the gospel to millions.
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Prestonwood, led by Senior Pastor Jack Graham, has had a pregnancy center since 1991. During Sunday’s services, people involved with the center shared how it has changed their life. Ritchie has “no arms but his feet are beautiful carriers of the gospel,” according to a post from Graham.
This is Daniel Ritchie preaching in our Prestonwood pulpit….no arms but his feet are beautiful carriers of the gospel. God spared his life at birth when his father told the doctor to fight for his life tho the doc asked do you want me to just let him go…An amazing man ….you… https://t.co/e7XNc4c4R7
— Jack Graham (@jackngraham) January 23, 2025
Daniel Ritchie: ‘God Is the Author of Life’
Preaching on John 1:1-5, Daniel Ritchie emphasized that “God is the author of life” and that true life is found in Jesus, the Word. “Jesus is our light, our life, our everything,” he said. “Our very personhood hangs on the person and work of Jesus Christ. We look to him to know and understand what our value, what our worth, and what our calling is.”
Ritchie continued, “We’re not a collection of cells. We’re not some accidental, spontaneous creation.” Because God made each person “fearfully and wonderfully,” he said, “there are no accidental image-bearers in this room.”
While growing up, Ritchie doubted God’s plans, wondering, “What in the world is God going to do in an armless life like mine?” Decades later, he sees how “God is using these empty sleeves [and] the weak things of the world to shame the wise…We don’t have to come in the same package as everybody else for us to be used in the kingdom of God.”
During his sermon, Ritchie spoke about the value of pregnant women, as well. Mothers who consider abortion aren’t the enemy or monsters, he told worshipers, and the church must stop treating them as such. “They’re scared, and they have nowhere else to turn,” he said of pregnant women. Thinking the church will judge them, they “turn to Planned Parenthood because that’s the one place that welcomes them with open arms.”
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, as churches throughout America honored the sanctity of human life, Daniel Ritchie shared his powerful story at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas. Ritchie, born without arms 40 years ago, urged listeners to stand in the gap for life, just as his father did for him.){kind=link}