Book Review 1 - Heaven is for Real

Heaven Is For Real is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska Pastor who, during emergency surgery, is said to have slipped from consciousness and experienced heaven.  He survives and begins to tell his family about his experiences.

When this book was first mentioned as a possible read I have to admit I was very sceptical.  I wasn’t convinced that I was going to believe that a child had actually spent time with Christ and had come back to earth to tell the story.  However, once I started reading this book I found I couldn’t put it down and I began to believe that this child's account was genuine.

‘Heaven Is For Real’ was written by a Todd Burpo, the father of the little boy, Colton.  At the beginning of the book he talks a lot about himself but once he starts to recount the unique ways he learned about his son’s visit to heaven I found that the book became captivating.  The story started to come to light when Colton told his parents that he saw them praying for him outside the operating room.  When they asked him how he knew this, he said ‘cause I could see you … I went up out of my body and I was looking down and could see the doctor working on my body.  And I saw you and Mommy.’ 

Todd and his wife really struggled to come to terms with what their child was telling them.    Some of his revelations included: angels singing to him, sitting on Jesus’ lap and descriptions of Jesus’ wounds.  As a Pastor, Todd tested his son’s claims against scripture and even tried to trick him.  But the more he heard, the more he realised that his son couldn’t fabricate this kind of information.

I have to admit that, at this stage, although I found the book interesting and fascinating, I still was a bit cynical.  I thought that the son of a Pastor was bound to have been brought up in an environment where he had heard about angels and Jesus’ wounds.  However, then came the disclosure that convinced me that Colton wasn’t fabricating this.  He told his parents that he had met his sister.  His mother had lost a baby girl and Colton had never been told about this.  There was no way he could have known this kind of information.

I think it is very possible that Colton saw heaven.  I’m not sure that everything the 4 year old described was accurate, but what 4 year old would be? 
This is a must-read.  It gives hope for the future. I’ve never doubted that there is a heaven and this little boy’s adventure gets across the simple message that heaven is definitely a real place! 

Jane Richardson