Point of View

I love the perspective of this book. It may seem to some people that it is biased for a pastor to write a book called Heaven is For Real, but to me it seems only appropriate. When Colton gives Todd information about what he saw in heaven, Todd can compare it to the Bible verbatim, which he does quite often and seemingly honestly. Todd also continually reiterates that when he would ask Colton questions about heaven, he would try to leave them open ended, so as not to lead Colton in any certain direction.
His experience and knowledge of the faith are not the only aspects of having a pastor as a narrator that add to the book. Todd also has a hard time believing or picturing certain things about heaven, shattering any preconceived notion that a pastor never has any questions of faith. He honestly wants to believe all these things about his faith and heaven itself, but it is human nature to question things we can't physically touch or see. And Todd is only human.

Currently

Heaven is for Real, Todd Burpo
Surviving the Extremes, Kenneth Kamler, M.D.

This Week: 107 pages
Last Week: 0 pages

Sentences of the Week:
1. Next, we stepped into a massive atrium, bursting with jungle leaves, vines tumbling down, brances climing toward the sky.

2. Asking me to sit down while I delivered the Sunday message was like asking an Italian to talk withough using his hands.

3 "Well, what did you do in heaven?" I ventured.
   "Homework."

The first sentence I chose was one that stood out to me when I first read it because the imagery was so strong. The sentence has so much motion and activity contained in it that I can see the busy, full, bright, beautiful atrium.

The next sentence just displays a bit of the author's sense of humor. He has a common sense of humor that I don't find particularly amusing, but this comment made me smile because it holds so true to my mom's big Italian family.

This last sentence is every teacher's dream response from a child. It took me by surprise that a preschooler would be doing homework in heaven, but I guess he's just telling it like it is.

Heaven is For Real

This book seriously gives me goosebumps. It's not exquisitely written, but the subject matter and point of view make it effective in not only convincing the reader that heaven exists, but also tugging at the reader's pathos. If I had not been in a class while reading the chapter about Colton's surgery, I probably would have cried. It is written in such a way that makes the book easy to relate to, as if this could happen to any family.
Also, the concept that a four-year-old boy could be teaching his pastor father about heaven is almost humorous. At the same time, however, the things this little boy says about heaven are chilling. He even goes so far as to tell his father that he may have died for a few minutes. How's that for a bit of parental shock?

Heaven is For Real

So even though many of my family members have already read this book and I had a general idea of what to expect before I began it, this book is not failing to astonish me. In a nutshell, Heaven is For Real is about a 4 year old boy who had a near-death experience, and begins slowly revealing that he may have taken a trip to heaven during an emergency surgery. This book holds deep emotional significance for me because it loosely, though strikingly coincidentally pertains to my family. I have had 23 first cousins, and my extended family is unusually close, especially considering the physical distance between us (from the east coast to the west one, literally). So last year when one of my cousins (whose 17th birthday was yesterday) was diagnosed with leukemia, receiving the news was devastating. He was only about 6 months older than me (the closest in age to me of all 23), but he lived in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, so our families rarely got to see each other more than once a year. We sent him our prayers constantly and never gave up hope that he would get through this: and he did get through it. My cousin beat cancer. However, in only a matter of weeks later, it was back and worse than ever. Every type of treatment was tried, but his body was no longer responding to it. There came a point when there was nothing else the doctors could do, and my cousin made the decision to stop trying. The treatment was taking to high of a toll on his body, and his strong faith along with an astounding incident told him he was ready to go home.

This incident I mentioned came a few days before the end of my 16 year old cousin's life. He was sleeping almost all day by then, but he had one particular dream that stuck out in his mind, as well as everyone else's. He told his pastor and his parents that he visited Jesus, who had his arms open, ready to receive my cousin. Although he had been heroically strong the entire journey, this event was what put him most at ease that it was his time to go. He passed away peacefully only a few days later.

Colton Burpo in Heaven is For Real seemed to have a similar experience, although it seems Colton spent more time in heaven and maybe even entered the gates. I have not read much description of Colton's experience in heaven thus far, but Colton has mentioned meeting Jesus and his deceased grandfather, as well as being sung to by angels. You may think that this is just a four-year-old's generic picture of heaven, and does not prove anything. Colton, however, with his four-year-old mind somehow knew what both of his parents were doing during the surgery, even though they were in different rooms than him and he was anesthetized the entire time. He quite straightforwardly explains this startling knowledge by saying "I went up out of my body and I was looking down and I could see the doctor working on my body." For a child who most likely does not understand the meaning of "out of body experience", I would say Colton experienced something more than a hallucination in this hospital.