Pavin Smith was blessed to be the first-round pick of the Arizona Diamondback in 2017. This meant a hefty $5 million bonus for the 21-year old.
For some people his age, they would spend the money to buy things they wanted. But Pavin proved to be different from the crowd. He has character and values that his parents can prove confidently.
Every Christmas, the Smiths have a family tradition of hiding the kids’ biggest gift somewhere in the house. Tim, Pavin’s dad, would write out clues like a scavenger hunt. Pavin riffed on this theme by rolling a sheet of paper into a scroll and burying it deep in the Christmas tree.
His parents discovered it, opened it, and read the words aloud. It was a poem that described a gift. Paige, Pavin’s sister, captured the incident on video.
Nobody in the family had any idea what was about to happen. Pam, Pavin’s mom, got halfway through the book before she realized what her son had done. She was overwhelmed with emotion. Tim began to cry as he read over her shoulder.
Pavin used a portion of the $5 million signing bonus to pay off his parent’s mortgage as well as the loan they’d taken out of it.
“Thank you for raising me in a great home filled with love,” Pavin wrote in the note. “Because of all the sacrifices you made to get me where I am, I want our family home to be yours.”
“It was just a huge gift that we never expected. It’s like a gift that keeps on giving,” Pam said.
Truly, Pavin proved to be one of the biggest blessings that God has given to the Smiths.
Psalm 127:3 says that:
“Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.” And in Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”