A few weeks ago, I read the book, Heaven Is for Real. It’s a little boys astounding story of his trip to heaven and back. I read it in less…
A few weeks ago, I read the book, Heaven Is for Real. It’s a little boys astounding story of his trip to heaven and back. I read it in less than a day. I was thrilled, had goose bumps, wrangled with some the secrets he shared about the afterlife and I was flat out craving my heavenly home.
Thus begins a story in which I share with you one of the most astounding answers to prayer I have ever experienced. Join me today at Laced With Grace.
I still can't beleive it and it happend to me, Hugs, Lynn
I’m going to play the role of skeptic here. While we would all like to think that someone has been to heaven and come back to tell us what it was like, I’d be a lot more convinced of this child’s revelations if he wasn’t being raised in a traditional Christian family and his father wasn’t a Pastor. Of course, I haven’t read the book, but from what I can tell, this child has related an image of Heaven that is pretty much what Christians expect, with no surprises or “corrections” to our perceptions. That’s a little unusual right there, since I don’t believe we have a complete and total understanding about God, Jesus, Heaven, or anything else that operates in a metaphysical or spiritual realm. I read this review at Amazon written by Pastor Micah Mauldin AKA “The Heavy Revy”:
As I mentioned before, I’m a skeptic at heart. A book like this one wouldn’t likely catch my attention and certainly wouldn’t win any praise from me. So many books like these are fanciful, unbiblical, and simply outright inconsistent with what I know to be true from the Bible. Colton Burpo’s story was a refreshing and surprisingly accurate portrait of what awaits each of us whose destiny is Heaven. I read the book with a critical eye, looking for those little details that would prove this story to be at best inaccurate or at worst a fraud. I couldn’t find them. His tale seemed honest. His descriptions fit the way a child would describe things, not one whose words had been fed him by an adult. Some of his revelations were simply amazing!
I know I probably sound terrible, but maybe this happened and maybe it didn’t. I’m not saying anyone is being untruthful, but I am saying that whatever this child experienced at age 4 was very likely filtered, as he got older, through the lived experience of his family, his parents’ expectations, and his church upbringing. That Pastor Mauldin can say Colton’s story matches his understanding of what the Bible says about Heaven very accurately is a red flag for me. As I said before, I believe there are mysteries about the supernatural world we *don’t* understand and *can’t* always interpret correctly from the Biblical record.
I recall seeing a story several years ago where parents were convinced their son was a reincarnated World War II fighter pilot. On the surface, that seemed convincing as well, but it’s very difficult to take what a child reports and to weave it into a metaphysical reality. Who is to say that one child’s story is true and another child’s story is fantasy, just because it matches one group’s expectations and beliefs (Christians vs. people who believe in reincarnation) over the other’s.
Again, I can’t say with any sort of certainty that what this boy is related is not true, but just because it fulfills our wishes and maps to modern Christian expectations of Heaven, I’m not willing to automatically believe that it’s true, either. As people of faith, we still want “proof” of what we believe, but if that proof is handed to us on a silver platter, would we still have faith at that point?
Ask yourself this question. If little Colton had related a story that didn’t match up 100% with modern, traditional Christian expectations about Heaven (and didn’t flagrantly contradict the Bible, but simply interpreted it in a different and unexpected way) would we be so quick to accept his story?
Hi James,
Interesting thoughts and I agree we can’t just take as fact everything. But, these accounts told in the innocence of this child are fantastic. I sure hope that heaven is what he describes. I loved this particular part of the story where Colton prays for a rainbow, simply expecting it, because He knows God listens and loves him and wants to delight him.
That is the kind of love relationship I want with Jesus. I think I truly experienced that yesterday. It was so fantastic I am forever changed. That’s what I know for sure and I want everyone in our community to know that God stands waiting to hear our prayers, for us to obey Him and then watch as He moves in our ordinary lives and demonstrates the extraordinary.
It blows my mind. Hugs to you. Have a great day. Lynn
I realize I must sound terrible (I probably sound even worse when discussing this topic on my blog, but I tend to err on the side of caution, for the most part. Even the most honest and well-meaning believers can sometimes “preach” out of their desires rather than their actual experiences. Believing in God is, in some sense, believing in the “impossible” or at least the “incredible”. Faith takes us into a world that goes beyond physical reality and even, as I’m discovering, into what we could call the “mystic”, but that said, we must strive to make sure that when we have an incredible experience, it’s God talking and not just us saying what we want to hear.
Blessings.
James, you make me smile. I don't think that at all. I KNOW you are a deep
thinker and like to see from all angles. You make me think and to make sure
I'm seeing things with a full view. Always through the lens of the Bible.
Hugs, Lynn
it has been a blessing to me…
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