HEAVEN

Todd Burpo (2010). Heaven Is For Real.

Todd is the father of Colton who at 4 years of age underwent a surgery for a ruptured and over the course of time Colton reports what he experienced about heaven during the surgery. 

One has to consider: the medical report did not include a "near death" experience, Colton's upbringing of 4 years with his father being a pastor, Sunday school, and media exposure are all potential sources of experience that he may be drawing on, possible distortions in memory recall, expectancies effects when parents ask children questions, and the role of childhood imagination.

Colton says he was above his body looking down at the doctor performing surgery on him...he could see his father in another room praying, and his mother in a separate room on her phone and praying (both of these facts were confirmed by the parents). 

Colton recounts his experience of being in heaven sitting on Jesus' lap--Jesus was dressed in white with a purple sash, had a crown on his head, and red "markers" on his hands and feet that corresponded to the wounds of Jesus' crucifixion. Colton was hugged by his "other" sister who had no name--he told his mom of the sister that "died in her tummy" (the parents confirmed a miscarriage at 2 months and they never could decide on a name for the child). 

Colton also reported seeing his grandfather who he called Pop even though he had never met his grandfather nor did the parents speak of his grandfathers nickname Pop. When his parents showed Colton a picture of Pop, he did not recognize him, saying that Pop was younger. Colton's dad dug out an old photo of Pop with 3 other relatives and Colton corrected identified his grandfather Pop. 

The parents asked what Jesus looked like and of the many images they showed Colton over the next few years, all of them had "something wrong" with them until they showed him an image of Akiane's portrait of Jesus which she painted as a child based on a vision of Jesus. After looking at the image for a long time, Colton said, this one is "right." 

Other features of heaven included: always being light because God and Jesus' light brightened all of heaven, people are young, looked like angels, had sashes of different colors, wings of different length (which they used to fly), and light above their heads. There were many other characteristics of heaven reported in the book.

Is this just one boy's unique experience of heaven? The image of Jesus seems to match that of the portrait created by the Akiane girl so there is some corroboration. I wonder how many near death experiencers have similar descriptions of heaven, and/or if our experiences of heaven will all be unique or similar for each of us--perhaps some similarities and some differences?

There is a movie based on the same title as the book, "Heaven Is For Real"--there is a free version online with ads, rent on amazon prime, buy it, or perhaps find it is in your local public library. Watch it and see if/how it impacts your life. Is heaven real for you? and if so, what concrete difference does it make in the way you live your life? Find out more by visiting: heavenisforreal.net