Back in 2006 there was an event that made a huge impact on many who heard about it.  A young man used his body as a human shield to save the life of a young woman he had only just met.

Melbourne woman, Kimberley Dear was in the United States.  She was fulfilling a long-held ambition to work with handicapped children at an American summer camp.  While there she made friends with a British woman and together they decided to have a go at sky-diving.

It was on their very first sky-diving trip in July 2006 that their plane suffered engine failure.  Seven people died when their plane hit a power pole and nosedived into a tree soon after take-off from an airport near St Louis, in the US state of Missouri. But Kimberley Dear, amazingly, survived the accident.

Her survival, humanly speaking, is due to the heroism of Kimberley’s skydiving instructor, 22-year-old Robert Cook.  Robert knew the plane was going to crash – but he believed it was his duty to save the life of Kimberly Dear, the 21-year-old Australian woman he’d taken on board for a skydiving lesson.

After the accident Kimberley’s father, Bill, told media reporters in Australia what had happened: “When he realised the plane was going to crash, he grabbed Kimberley and calmly talked to her and told her that the plane was going to crash.  He told her what to expect and what to do and kept her calm and focused her attention on him and what he was saying rather than what was happening around her.  Kim was going to do a tandem jump with Robert so that she had the harness for the tandem jump on, as Robert did as well, so Robert actually clipped the harnesses together and, as the plane was coming down, he put his arms around her and pulled her close.  As he pulled her close, her head rested on his shoulders.  He put his head against hers to stop it flopping around.  He said to her: 'As the plane is about to hit the ground, make sure you're on top of me so that I'll take the force of the impact.'”

Kimberley Dear suffered spinal injuries and a broken pelvis but the young survivor was on her feet again within months of the accident, after a gruelling rehabilitation process.  There were so many fractures, and spinal fractures, but there was no spinal cord injury.  It’s been said many times since the accident that it’s amazing that Kimberley walked again after the plane crash.

Skydiving instructor Robert Cook was awarded, posthumously, the Australian Bravery Award, one of Australia’s most prestigious honours.  That recognition was bittersweet for Cook’s family since Robert himself was not alive to receive it.

Kimberley’s father, Bill, called Robert Cook a hero and commented: "I can't believe that in this world when so many people are so jaded that there are people out there like that.  He met Kimberley, as far as I know, that day.  I would do that for her but I can't believe that a stranger who just met her would knowingly give up his life for her.”

We as Christians have recently celebrated Good Friday and Easter again, remembering another amazing sacrifice.  Because that’s what the cross was all about – it was an heroic sacrifice.  Jesus Christ was not just sentenced to death and executed.  No!  When he died at 3 o’clock on that first Good Friday afternoon it was a rescue mission that he carried out.  He died to take upon himself the full impact of God’s holy anger against human sin, rebellion and failure.  Robert Cook took into his own body the full impact of gravity in a plane crash and saved one person: Kimberly Dear.  Jesus Christ took into his own body the full impact of God’s judgment against sin in a cruel execution by crucifixion and saved many people... all who trust in his saving work.  Robert Cook is a hero; Jesus Christ is more than a hero; he’s our Saviour, Lord and king.

There’s just one other comment that should be made about the saving of Kimberley Dear.  A question!  Do you think Kimberly will ever forget the sacrifice made by Robert Cook?  I imagine the answer would be a decided: Never!  How much more then should we never forget the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary so that we might be restored to God and enjoy life everlasting?

John Westendorp