Credit: ABC News, YouTube Capture
Many of us are familiar with John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
But you may not be familiar with the day, that verse was googled over 94 million times during a college football game, and the odd coincidences that followed after it was googled 90 million times during an NFL playoff.
It all started when quarterback Tim Tebow decided to change the Biblical verse that he wrote over his eye black during college football games.
Tebow, a born-again Christian, was the Heisman winning Quarterback for the University of Florida Gators. When he started his college career, he saw players putting black tape beneath their eyes to reduce the glare and writing their mom’s name on it or other messages.
Following suit, Tim decided that this would be a good way to incorporate a Biblical message and wrote the citation for Philippians 4:13 using a white marker, Faithit reports.
The word Philippians was written beneath his right eye, and 4:13 beneath his left eye, so anyone looking at him would read it as Philippians 4:13.
He thought this was a fitting verse for a football player, and played the 2009 college season with the verse boldly displayed on his face.
But towards the end of the season, as they were preparing for the National Championship, the Holy Spirit began speaking to Tim about changing the verse.
The first time it happened was when he was preparing to run out of the tunnel for the start of the championship SEC game against Alabama, six weeks earlier, which the Gators won.
For the next six weeks leading up to the championship game, “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,” Tebow shared in a video on TikTok.
When he mentioned changing the verse, his coach wasn’t all that sure Tim should do it. Because of Tim’s and the team’s previous success, the verse was being looked upon as a bit of a good luck charm.
Why change it before the biggest game of the year?
But Tim changed it and during that BCS championship game played on January 8, 2009, John 3:16 was googled over 94 million times.
But an even stranger thing happened three years later to the day during an NFL game. This confirmed that the Holy Spirit was guiding Tebow’s decision to change the verse
Tebow was quarterbacking the Denver Broncos and during a playoff game on January 8, 2012, Tim again put John 3:16 under his eye.
Denver won the game, upsetting the favored Pittsburgh Steelers 29 to 23.
After the game, the team’s amazed PR guy shared with Tim some incredible statistics about what took place during the game.
Not only did 90 million people google John 3:16 during the game, but the PR guy said, “Timmy, this is exactly three years from the time you put John 3:16 under your eyes … during the [Denver] game, you threw for 316 yards.”
But it didn’t stop there. Tim’s average yard per pass completion was 31.6, the team’s time of possession was 31 minutes and 6 seconds, and the CBS rating for the game peaked at 31.6 between 8 and 8:15 pm.
Finally, the only interception of the game was thrown by Pittsburgh Steelers QB, Ben Roethlisberger when the team was 3 and 16.
There were too many John 3:16 connections for this to be a coincidence. In fact, it was so remarkable that the 3:16 Game, as it came to be known, even received media coverage and its own page on Wikipedia.
Jesus said “My sheep hear My voice”, (John 10:27) and it’s clear that the Holy Spirit was speaking to Tim, and he listened and obeyed.
I suspect Tim received a word of knowledge, but it certainly had a prophetic edge to it as well.
The game was remarkable in other ways as well. At 11 seconds, it was the shortest overtime win in NFL history when Tim Tebow completed an 80-yard touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas.
Denver pundits have looked upon the victory as one of the greatest in Bronco’s history, while Steeler fans consider it one of their worst defeats.
