Courage To Support

The Brooklyn Dodgers' Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson chatting in dugout at Yankee Stadium in 1947.

Jackie Robinson was the first black person to play major league baseball.

Breaking baseball’s color barrier, he faced jeering crowds in every stadium.

Players would stomp on his feet and kick him.

While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he made an error. The fans began to ridicule him. He stood at second base, humiliated, while the fans jeered.

Then, Pee Wee Reese came over and stood next to him.

He put his arm around Jackie Robinson and faced the crowd.

The fans grew quiet.

Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career.

We are sometimes like Jackie Robinson, full of shame.

Sometimes, like Jackie, our shame is from nothing we've done.

Sometimes our shame is from our own sin and guilt.

And like Pee Wee Reese, Jesus comes and slips his arm around us, and bears our shame for us.