The idea for Tim Tebow’s latest book began in the early hours of a sleepless morning.

Sitting on the floor of his TV room while listening to a sermon, the 38-year-old former NFL quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner found himself reflecting on Luke 19:40, the moment Jesus says that if His followers remain silent, “the rocks will cry out.”

That thought led Tebow to ask himself: If inanimate creation could testify to Christ, what would the wooden cross, the object that bore His crucifixion, say? The question inspired his latest project, If the Tree Could Speak,an illustrated book that retells the crucifixion from the perspective of the cross itself.

“That just started this train of thought,” Tebow told The Christian Post. “If creation is so ready to praise Him, how much more so would the tree that Jesus hung on on Calvary’s cross, because it was the closest thing to Jesus on that day?”

“I just started to weep thinking about this, about how many times I’ve known the love of God and the sacrifice that Jesus made, but how many times I’ve missed the mark,” the athlete added. “Not praising Him, not talking about Him, not sharing His love.”

Tebow, who welcomed his first child in July with his wife, Demi-Leigh Tebow, said he concluded his reluctance often came down to “one of two reasons”: either he did not fully believe or he did not love people enough.

“I really didn’t believe, or I really didn’t love people enough,” Tebow said. “I just don’t think there’s another good excuse.”

Illustrated by Rommel Ruiz, the book follows a tree from its beginnings as a seed through its transformation into the cross, imagining its dashed hopes of becoming something useful or beautiful before becoming, as Tebow described it, “an instrument of shame.” Ultimately, the story reframes the cross not only as a tool of execution but as “a doorway” and “a throne.”

“What the cross didn’t realize is that it was being created into a doorway and into a throne, a throne for King Jesus to hang on and a doorway to Heaven,” Tebow said. “The Gospel should never become old to us. If the life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ is true, it changes everything. It changes time. It changes history. It changes our eternity.”

Tebow, the son of missionaries, expressed concern that familiarity has softened the impact of the crucifixion for many longtime believers. The book, he emphasized, intentionally lingers in the brutality of the crucifixion before pointing to resurrection and hope. 

“It is the only thing that changes everything,” Tebow said. “Why would we let that event become something that numbs us? If we don’t understand it, we’ll never really grasp how much grace costs. It’s free to us. It cost Jesus everything.”

The two-time national champion described the Gospel in three parts: “what we have been saved from, who we’ve been saved by, and what we’ve been saved for.” The final element, what believers are saved for, includes what Christians call the Great Commission, the command to share the message of Jesus.

“We weren’t average people made a little better,” Tebow said. “We were dead, and now we’re alive in Christ.”

Tebow acknowledged that even as someone widely associated with public expressions of faith throughout his extensive athletic career, he has wrestled with fear and hesitation. Sharing faith, he stressed, should come from humility rather than superiority.

“I think sometimes we’re afraid because we don’t have all the answers,” he said. “But you can come from humility and say, ‘I don’t know everything, but this changed my life, and I love you too much not to tell you.’”

The themes of suffering and redemption in If the Tree Could Speak also intersect with Tebow’s broader humanitarian efforts through the Tim Tebow Foundation, which works with vulnerable populations worldwide, including survivors of human trafficking and exploitation.

In September, Eagle Venture Fund, a North Texas-based venture capital firm, partnered with Tebow on a $50 million initiative aimed at investing in technological solutions to fight human trafficking. 

Tebow previously shared that his daughter, Daphne’s, middle name comes from “one of the youngest girls we’ve ever been able to bring out of this evil and care for,” a girl rescued at just 25 days old.

But even with the darkness in the world, and in a year already marked by global instability and cultural tension, Tebow said he hopes readers are reminded of the hope found in Jesus Christ alone.

“He won, and He won on our behalf,” Tebow said. “We get to be on the winning team, even though sometimes it doesn’t feel like that. Sometimes it feels overwhelming; the level of evil and destruction in this world is daunting. But we serve a King who defeated sin and death, and the Groom is coming back to get His bride. 

As we wait for Him, we have a mission. It’s called the Great Commission, to go tell the world. Let’s try to be faithful in that mission, because God’s always faithful on His and He’s coming back to bring his bride home.”

At the same time, he stressed that the message of the cross should be approached with both reverence and confidence.

“There’s a holy gravity to eternity,” Tebow said. “But what’s amazing is that even though He’s holy and perfect, He’s also a God who wants us near.”

He added, “If we don’t really understand the cross, it’s hard to understand just how loving and kind God has been to us.”

Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com