Book review: Heaven is for Real by: Todd Burpo

Title: Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Sotry of His Trip to Heaven and Back
Authors: Todd Burpo, Lynn Vincent (Contributor), Sonja Burpo, Colton Burpo
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (November 2, 2010)

Source: Received it as a birthday gift from my sister-in-law 

Summary from Goodreads:

A young boy emerges from life-saving surgery with remarkable stories of his visit to heaven.
 
Heaven Is for Real is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn't know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear.

Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how "reaaally big" God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit "shoots down power" from heaven to help us.

Told by the father, but often in Colton's own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle.

Review:
Both my husband and I finished this book in 24 hours. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. As a Christian, I have to admit that I wonder a lot about Heaven and what it'll be like. The Bible doesn't give us too much information about Heaven and I'm curious about a lot of things. It may sound selfish, but my hope is that I'll be able to reconnect with loved ones in Heaven - especially my husband. I wonder what it would be like to be in the presence of Jesus. I have so many questions I want to ask Him!

This book gave me a lot of peace about Heaven and my Christian faith. I thoroughly enjoyed it because it is so obvious that what happened to the little boy, Colton, was a God thing and in so other ways, could not have been made up. There is no way that he would have known that his parents were in separate rooms when he was in his surgery. How would he know about his great grandfather that he's never known and wasn't even living in his lifetime? Without giving too much away, the evidence in the story is hard to refute.

I loved that Burpo included words from Colton because it gave a realness to the story and really helped the reader to see it from a child's perspective. The Bible says in Matthew 18: 2-6:

He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. ³ And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵ And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Amen to that. I wish I had a pure, childlike reverence for God. This book stretched my faith in ways I was not expecting and I hope that anyone who is curious about Heaven, Christian or not, will read this because it will shake your notions of what's real and what's not.

Rating:

5 out of 5 stars