Love Boards the Plane

On September 30, 1972, Roberto Clemente lined a double off the wall at Three Rivers Stadium for his 3,000th career hit. Only ten players in baseball history had reached that milestone before him. The Pittsburgh Pirates star had everything: a Hall of Fame career, an MVP award, two World Series rings. He could have spent that off-season celebrating.

Then, on December 23, a massive earthquake devastated Managua, Nicaragua. Clemente immediately organized relief flights. When he learned that corrupt officials were diverting supplies away from survivors, he made a decision that would cost him everything. He would personally accompany the next shipment to ensure it reached the people who needed it.

On New Year's Eve, Clemente boarded an overloaded DC-7 cargo plane in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Minutes after takeoff, the plane crashed into the Atlantic. Roberto Clemente was thirty-eight years old.

He didn't have to be on that plane. He had wealth, fame, a family waiting at home. But Clemente understood something that echoes through Scripture: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).

Jesus didn't have to walk to Calvary. The Creator of the universe didn't have to become a servant. But love does what it doesn't have to do. Love boards the plane. Love carries the cross.

This week, what comfort might the Almighty be asking you to leave behind so that someone else might be lifted up?