Recently I was looking for a book to read. I am one of those people who always have at least one book in progress, sometimes two or three. Looking through the books and wanting something I had not read in a while, I picked up “Heaven Is For Real" by Todd Burpo. It is a true story about his son, Colton. A couple of months before his fourth birthday, he became extremely sick and was finally diagnosed with a burst appendix and was taken into emergency. While he was in surgery, he went to heaven. He met the Trinity, a grandfather he never knew and a sister whom his mother lost while pregnant. He saw many and experienced many wonderful things. I’m not going to recreate the book or the subsequent movie other than to say you should read the book. One of the interesting photos in the book is a painting of Jesus Christ. It was done by an eight year old girl, Akiane Kramarik, who had started having visions of heaven when she was four. When Colton saw the painting, he told his dad that this is what Jesus looks like.
It would be easy to blow off the book or Colton’s experiences. After all, there are other books by people who had near-death experiences and saw Jesus and dead relatives. Some scientists and doctors debunk the stories by saying these people were starved for oxygen and these were hallucinations. I don’t know whether they are true or not. Colton’s story is totally believable. Go read it.
Throughout the book, Colton describes his experiences in bits and pieces. He tells many details about what heaven is like, both in terms of everyone he met and what it looked like, a place of wonder and beauty. We have other descriptions of heaven, Revelations and other parts of the bible. Colton’s descriptions of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, bring a reality to just how wonderful and loving they are, and what being in heaven is like. This is the reward that awaits us when it is our turn to go. It is far more vivid and real than the other descriptions from the many ministers I have heard.
This is what awaits you, as God’s good and faithful servant. This is your reward for being one of God’s people. So the message of this writing is to follow him, obey his laws and commandments and live forever in eternity in the presence of God’
