Former Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, a diehard believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, is seeing his famous John 3:16 eye blacks once again make waves across the internet. For those of you who don’t know the story behind them, you’re in for a treat, as this is a super inspiring tale that will feed your faith in Christ.
Okay, so if you’re not a big football fan or are new to the sport, you might not know what eye blacks are. You know those black paint stripes you see under an athlete’s eye? Those are eye blacks. They aren’t actually paint, but grease that is applied beneath the eye in order to reduce glare, though studies have not been able to come to any real conclusion as to whether or not they are effective.
So what’s the deal with Tebow’s eye black?
Here are some details from FaithIt:
The Bible verse, John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
And definitely, this verse is incredible when we think about its meaning. As Tim Tebow puts it, “It’s the essence of our hope.” But the story of Tim Tebow’s John 3:16 eye blacks may just be the perfect example of the surprising and exciting ways God can get out His message of His love for us.
On multiple occasions, Tim Tebow has told this story to audiences. It’s not new, by any means. The central dates of this story are January 8, 2009 and January 8, 2012. But today, a three-year-old video of Tim Tebow telling the John 3:16 story is viral again. Check it out here:
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7196335070385311022?lang=en-US&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Ffaithit.com%2Ftim-tebows-john-316-eye-blacks%2F
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In a little over a week, the clip on TikTok has managed to receive a whopping 534,000 likes with a stunning 85,000 shares. In other words, God is using this short clip of a famous athlete to help spread the basic message of the gospel all around the world in order to encourage His people and to draw those who have not yet surrendered their lives to Jesus to Himself. Amazing.
The story of Tim Tebow’s John 3:16 eye blacks begins, as he says “When I was at the University of Florida, going into my junior year…and I was in the training room…and I saw some of my teammates putting eye blacks under their eyes.”
For the rest of the season, Tim Tebow’s eye blacks said Philippians 4:13, and according to him, “It really wasn’t a big deal.” However, something happened when Tim Tebow went with his team to the SEC championship game. He felt God was telling him to change the verse.
Tebow then goes on to explain that, while he’s typically super focused and dialed in when he’s with his team preparing to take the field, he revealed that he was “agonizing over what verse I was going to go with.”
But then, God showed up, as He tends to do, and gave him a verse.
“God kept bringing to my heart in my head, John 3:16. Because as a Christian, that’s the essence of our Christianity…So I decided that’s the verse I’m going to go with,” the popular athlete said.
However, there was no way Tebow could have predicted how God was going to use those eye blacks. He was definitely not prepared for the response he was going to get.
After Tebow decided to change his eye blacks from Philippians 4:13, his coach wasn’t immediately on board. According to Tebow, Coach Meyer was superstitious, and he told Tebow, “You can’t change the verse. That verse got us here!”
It’s almost comical how superstitious professional athletes and their coaches can be. And while football can definitely bring that out of folks, no one is as bad as baseball players, especially pitchers. You will see pitchers go through the exact same routine time and time again, doing all sorts of weird pats or rubs of the ball or twitches or whatever, in order to preserve their streaks.
After explaining why he wanted to change his eye black, Coach Meyer agreed. So on January 8, 2009, he put John 3:16 under his eyes for everyone at the BCS Championship Game to see. “During that game,” Tim Tebow shared. “94 million people Googled John 3:16.”
Tim Tebow’s John 3:16 eye blacks led 94 million people to learn or be reminded that God loves them.
“He is a big God that wants to do an amazing things,” Tim Tebow said in the TikTok video.
That’s pretty amazing, right? However, that isn’t where the story ends. In fact, it’s just getting started. Three years later, when he was playing as the quarterback for the Denver Broncos in the NFL playoffs, he sported the same verse. And once again, Tebow was used by the Lord to do something awesome.
It was January 8, 2012, three years to the day from when Tim Tebow first wore the John 3:16 eye blacks. The Broncos were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers. While Tebow says he didn’t think of John 3:16, one time throughout the game.
“I just went out there and tried to do anything I could to try to win a payoff game, and we were blessed to win this crazy game in overtime,” Tebow stated.
But God showed up throughout Tebow’s stats.
After the game the PR guy tracked down Tebow, excited with news.
Tebow said, explaining the PR guy seemed serious in that moment and “He looks at me and says, Timmy, this is exactly three years from the time you put John 3:16 under your eyes…during the game, you threw for 316 yards.”
The John 3:16 reference was strangely in many of Tebow’s stats from that day. He explained how his PR guy told him that in addition to the 316 years, Tebow’s “yards per rush were 3.16. Your yards per completion were 31.6. The time of possession was 31.06, and the ratings for the night were 31.6.”
During the game, a whopping 90 million people took to Google to find out what John 3:16 said and meant. And thus, for many, this was the first time they heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Beautiful.