The book, Heaven Is For Real, by Todd Burpo, has been sitting on my nightstand for over a year. A new friend we met on vacation, more on that tomorrow, recommended it, and he was probably the 150th person to do so. I noticed that the film is debuting in mid April, so I sat down and read it. It is a quick read, and I realize that I am probably the last person in the world to do so, but it was just as wonderful as I had hoped.
Heaven is a place that most people have considered. Many have developed opinions and preconceived ideas of what it might look like, be like. Of course, no one knows. The Bible describes Heaven in specific terms, but I am of the opinion that you have to be somewhat open minded when translating the words of the Bible into your perception of the meanings of those words. A book I read a few years back, The Shack, by William Paul Young, was a work of fiction that changed how I viewed almost everything. It demonstrated a different way to view things and people here on earth in this life, as well as showing me how wrong I might be about my insights regarding Heaven. The fact that I read this book a few years ago, definitely affected how I devoured Todd Burpo's book, because I have a more undeveloped opinion about the specifics of Heaven.
One thing that I strongly believe is that it is wonderful, awesome, and so much better than what is here on earth. I am not one of those people that needs to understand the details of life, death, and everything in between. As a human being, I don't believe we are capable or supposed to comprehend it. It is my opinion that God is in charge, and I am not going to "get" the big picture until we meet in Heaven. When I say that, I am referring to everything from why a person passes away at an early age, to why illness hits a family, to car accidents, and even to why good things sometimes happen to bad people and why bad things happen to good people. Those things might make me mad and uncomfortable, but eventually, I come back around to my core belief that I am not put on this earth to understand everything.
Heaven Is For Real is the story of Colton Burpo, who, during a very serious appendectomy surgery, claims to have visited Heaven. His appendix had burst, leaking poison and infection into his tiny body. Later, his parents would find out that even the doctors could not explain his recovery from such a grave condition. At the age of 3, shortly after this surgery, Colton casually mentioned things to his parents that he observed them doing during his surgery. These were facts that he could have never known. The fact that Todd, his father, was yelling at God in one room of the hospital and having a meltdown -- the fact that his mother, Sonja, was making phone calls on her cell phone asking for prayers for Colton from family and friends, he told them exactly what they were doing. Then there were the revelations that came out randomly during the next months and year or so -- unbelievable things that he had never been told. These comments came out of the blue, and they would usually catch either parent off guard. He told his parents that he met his other sister. Thinking he was confused, they told him that he knew his sister, she was in the other room. He confidently told them, no this sister had dark hair, and she was a little smaller than his blonde sister, Cassie. These parents had never spoken to him about the miscarriage that they suffered before Colton was born. Why would you tell a four year old about an event like that? But he knew. He told his mother that she had a "baby in her tummy that died." Todd and Sonja didn't even know the gender of that child. The miscarriage was very early, and this was news to them.
This book is bold and told by his father, but it uses Colton's three and four year old vocabulary to tell about how "really, really big" God is. During this Lenten season, there was one line in the book that just grabbed me. Easter is approaching, and during a conversation in the car, Cassie answers her dad's question about what happened on Good Friday by saying, "That's the day Jesus died on the cross." Todd follows that with the question about why Jesus died on the cross. Cassie was quiet and thinking, when Todd looked at Colton, and asked him, "Colton, do you know why Jesus died on the cross?" Colton silently nodded. Todd was surprised, but he said, "Okay, why?" Here was Colton's answer -- "Well, Jesus told me he died on the cross so we could go see his Dad." This whole book compares the differences, yet similarities, between grown-up faith and childlike faith.
Even if you have already read it, might be worth a revisit.
