What is one to make of Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back? It’s co-written by Todd Burpo, a Wesleyan pastor from a small town in Nebraska, and claims to be the story of his four year old son’s trip to heaven and back after almost dying on an operating table. Opinions as to the validity of little Colton’s story range from “It was written to make a quick buck” to “I believe every word of it.” My own opinion falls somewhere between a healthy skepticism and openness to the possibility that God might reveal something of heaven to an innocent little boy.
When Colton first makes mention of his trip to heaven, several months after the experience, his description seems fairly simple and childlike: angels sang to him as he sat in Jesus’ lap. He relays to his dad a standard near-death experience: “I went up out of my body and I was looking down and I could see the doctor working on my body. And I saw you and Mommy.” At this point I’m willing to admit the possibility that something extraordinary happened to Colton.
However, as time goes by, the little boy is questioned over and over about his experiences and more and more details are supplied. I doubt that any deliberate deceit was intended, but children of that age often blend reality with fantasy, and Colton may have incorporated things he heard from his family or in Sunday school into his memories of his heavenly experience. He might have also sensed the keen interest felt by the adults as they listened to him and wanted to please them by filling in more and more exciting details. It is not hard to imagine a little boy who loves pretending to be a sword-wielding superhero picturing a battle in heaven between “Jesus and the angels and the good people” and “Satan and the monsters and the bad people.”
There are a number of things that Colton reports that seem to give credence to his story; those who believe will point to these as proof while skeptics will make convincing arguments on the other side. Wherever you stand in the debate, the book is a good read and will get you thinking about heaven and, if it is for real, what it will be like.
