This year's Super Bowl played one of the most popular commercials which features a Christian athlete delivering a pro-adoption and a pro-life message.
The Toyota ad highlighted the American swimmer Jessica Long who won 13 gold medals at the Paralympic Games. She was adopted by an American family in Baltimore from an orphanage in Siberia.
Jessica Long was born without small leg bones, ankles, and knees which is the reason why when she was just a year and a half years old, both her legs were amputated below the knee due to her medical condition called Fibular Hemimelia.
Her condition did not stop her from learning how to swim as she began swimming in her grandparent's swimming pool when she was nine which was the start of her journey to becoming one of the most successful athletes in the Paralympics.
According to Christian Headlines, in the featured ad at the Super Bowl, Long is seen swimming in the water as her life story is being narrated. The ad also featured a recreated conversation between actresses playing as Long's mother and an adoption agency worker. It also shows the recreation of Jessica Long learning how to walk and swim as a child.
"Mrs. Long, we've found a baby girl for your adoption, but there are some things you need to know," the adoption worker in the Toyota ad said in a phone conversation. "She's in Siberia. She was born with a rare condition. Her legs will need to be amputated."
The adoption worker also added, "Her life, it won't be easy."
But Long's adoptive mother told the adoption worker, "It might not be easy, but it will be amazing. I can't wait to meet her."
At the end of the commercial, it shows a quote on the screen saying: "We believe there is hope and strength in all of us."
According to USA Today's Ad Meter panelist, the ad by Toyota featuring Jessica Long was the fifth most popular Super Bowl ad, and Marie Claire labeled the ad a "must-watch." Further, People also called the commercial "powerful."
Alexandra DeSanctis, from National Review, said the commercial ad is "the most touching ad during the Super Bowl" and that it is "a homage both to the beauty of adoption and the dignity of every life."
Devoted Christian Jessica Long spoke with Sports Spectrum last year about her faith saying she only accepted Christ in 2013 even though she grew up in a Christian household.
She claimed that all the gold medals and recognition she was receiving back then did not "fulfill" her until she accepted Christ in her life.
"The big thing that I kept saying was I wanted to give God my whole heart and not just part of me," she said. "I didn't want to give him just my Sundays or my weekends."
She also mentioned that she wanted to be "a part of God's family," and so she did.
