Book Review: Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent

I wasn’t immediately thrilled by the idea of a book about a little boy who went to Heaven and came back to tell about it.  I don’t know why.  I’ve read 90 Minutes in Heaven  and really liked that one, but I guess I just figured this would be more of the same.  But this book was captivating.  Little Colton Burpo didn’t just come out of surgery and start telling everyone about his experience:  his story came out in bits and pieces as other events brought things to mind.  He wasn’t trying to impress anyone, he just was mentioning what he saw or what Jesus told him—almost as a “by the way.”  What Colton said about things he saw and experienced in Heaven were so innocent and simple, yet Biblical and profound that you know a 4-year-old would never have been able to fabricate or “dream up” all these things.  Details about relatives he had never heard of, and Biblical parallels of which he could have no knowledge validated his reports.

His absolute love for Jesus and Jesus’ overwhelming love for Colton (and everyone else) is so evident in this book.  The simple theology Colton was able to express touched me the most.  An example is when his father started to explain to his kids what Good Friday was, he said, “Colton, do you know why Jesus died on the cross?”  Colton’s immediate answer was “Well, Jesus told me he died on the cross so we could go see his Dad.”  Who talks like that?  Kids will parrot a Sunday School answer to such a question, but I’ve never known of a Sunday School teacher who used “Jesus’ Dad” to refer to God the Father!

The other event that touched me the most was went Colton freaked out his babysitter by crying so hard over missing his sister.  He wasn’t referring to his big sister, Cassie, but to the sister he met in Heaven who his mother has miscarried before he was born.

This book made me love Jesus even more.  And it makes me excited to meet Him in Heaven some day, along with loved ones I miss and others I haven’t yet met.