In celebration of NFL quarterback Tim Tebow’s 28th birthday on Friday, PEOPLE Magazine has an exclusive story on the homepage of People.com.
[M]ore importantly for Tebow, he’s celebrating 5 years of the Tim Tebow Foundation, his charity that was created “to bring faith, hope and love to those needing a brighter day in their darkest hour of need.”
As a birthday celebration, Tebow has shared a video montage of his Foundation’s work.
The video features Tebow’s work around the world, helping orphaned children, inspiring those who are sick or have disabilities, and sometimes, saving lives (see the video at the end of this article). The Tim Tebow Foundation helps to fund the adoptions – 44 so far, with an additional one each month – of children with special needs.
The Foundation also started the “Night to Shine” just last year. On February 13, 2015, “44 host churches in 26 states and in three countries” hosted “more than 7,000 honored guests, all kings and queens of the prom.” The honored guests were people with disabilities – who many societies, including our own, reject and abort at high rates. Tebow spoke at the proms, telling the people that they were valuable and loved, most of all by the God who created and saves them.
“Tonight, our number one goal is to make you feel like kings and queens. But to be honest with you, every moment of your life, God looks at you like a king or a queen because you are so special.”
Tebow and his mother, Pam, have publicly shared the story of how Pam was urged to abort Tim, her fifth and last child.
In Tebow’s autobiography, he writes:
“According to [the doctor], the ‘mass of fetal tissue’ or ‘tumor’—me—had to go.”
Tim’s mother rejected abortion, and a worldwide star was born. In 2010, Focus on the Family aired a commercial during the Super Bowl, showing Tebow and his mother briefly speaking out for life. Viewers were directed to Focus on the Family’s website, where they could hear the full story.
Susan Wood was one pregnant woman who was watching the commercial, unsure of what she would do with her baby. She wrote:
“That was the night that I saw Tim Tebow’s commercial. That’s really what brought me to Focus on the Family. I went home and I watched the commercial again on YouTube. I explored the site, I watched video after video, then I emailed Focus on the Family…Then I got an email back and literally within reading that email it was almost instantly that decision, the things that she said just clicked. And I knew that all along that was what I wanted to do, that I needed to have the strength to do it. There was nothing after that, I knew I’m keeping the baby. I’m having her. ”
Susan’s daughter, Avita Grace, is now four years old. She and her mother “do everything together.” Here is their story:
Susan says:
“I think about the commercial, Tim Tebow and the people from Focus daily. I am so grateful. If there hadn’t been a Super Bowl commercial, if I hadn’t been at the party, if someone had responded to my email in a different way . . .I will never be able to express the gratitude and love that I feel.”
Just like Tim Tebow, each of us should seek to save, inspire, and aid more lives, every day. Our birthdays should serve as a reminder of the incredible blessing of life itself – and the gift of being born. May we work to make this a reality for many others.
