The whole nation has been tracking the progress of Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills pro football team recovering from a heart-stopping injury on Monday Night Football, January 2. Andrea Adelson wrote a beautiful article on ESPN: Damar Hamlin injury isn’t the most important part of the Bills safety’s story. Here’s how it starts:

Damar Hamlin had every football program in the country recruiting him during his senior year at Pittsburgh’s Central Catholic, his talent and upside enough to make him an undisputed four-star prospect and ESPN’s No. 2 defensive player in Pennsylvania.

Late in that 2015 season, Hamlin took a hit to the side of his knee against Penn-Trafford in the WPIAL Class 4A district championship, and coaches decided to hold him out the following week in a state quarterfinal against State College as a precaution. But that was not going to keep him off the field.

Hamlin begged his coaches to let him do something to help. His defensive coordinator at the time, Dave Fleming, put it more bluntly.

“After being a pain in the butt about it, we let him carry the water bottles,” Fleming recalled in a phone interview.

So there Hamlin stood, captain of the football team, elite prospect with offers from Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Pittsburgh and many others, literally carrying water for his teammates. Because he had to be there for them. Because there was no other way.

The article goes on:

“He’s the pride of his family,” said Terry Totten, Hamlin’s high school coach. “He’s the pride of McKees Rocks. He’s the pride of Central Catholic and the University of Pittsburgh all because he does everything in such a humble, giving way.”

While Pat Boone at age 88 lives out his Christian faith in Hollywood, Damar Hamlin, at age 24, sets the example as an athlete.

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20.25 – 28, ESV)