This book is written by Penecostal preacher Todd Burpo. He re-tells and describes his own son's journey to heaven in a near-death-experience. I would give this book 0 stars because this book doesn't come close to matching the true heaven in the Bible. Read these quotes from the book itself and decide for yourself if this matches the version of heaven from the Bible.
- Angels sang to Colton: “angels sang to me” “Well, they sang ‘Jesus Loves Me’ and ‘Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho,’” he said earnestly. “I asked them to sing ‘We Will, We Will Rock You,’ but they wouldn’t sing that.”
- Angels look like: “one of them looked like Grandpa Dennis, but it wasn’t him, ’cause Grandpa Dennis has glasses.
- “I was sitting in Jesus’ lap.”
- [Man who died] “He had to have Jesus in his heart! He had to know Jesus or he can’t get into heaven!”
- “Did you know that Jesus has a cousin? Jesus told me his cousin baptized him.”
- “Hey, Dad, did you know Jesus has a horse?” “A horse?” “Yeah, a rainbow horse. I got to pet him.”
- “What did Jesus look like?” “he has brown hair and he has hair on his face,” he said, running his tiny palm around on his chin. I guessed that he didn’t yet know the word beard. “And his eyes . . . oh, Dad, his eyes are so pretty!” “What about his clothes?” “His clothes were white, but it was purple from here to here.” Another word he didn’t know: sash. “Jesus was the only one in heaven who had purple on, Dad. Did you know that?” In Scripture, purple is the color of kings.
- “And he had this gold thing on his head . . . a crown, and it had this . . . this diamond thing in the middle of it and it was kind of pink.”
- “Colton, where are Jesus’ markers?” Without hesitation, he stood to his feet. He held out his right hand, palm up and pointed to the center of it with his left. Then he held out his left palm and pointed with his right hand. Finally, Colton bent over and pointed to the tops of both his feet. “That’s where Jesus’ markers are, Daddy,” he said.
- “What do people look like in heaven?” “Everybody’s got wings, but mine weren’t very big.”
- “Okay . . . did you walk places or did you fly?” “We flew. Well, all except for Jesus. He was the only one in heaven who didn’t have wings. Jesus just went up and down like an elevator.” The book of Acts flashed into my head, the scene of Jesus’ ascension, when Jesus told the disciples that they would be his witnesses, that they would tell people all over the world about him. After he said this, the Scripture says, Jesus “was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’”1 Jesus went up. And will come down. Without wings. To a kid, that could look like an elevator.
- “Everyone kind of looks like angels in heaven, Dad. All the people have a light above their head.” I couldn’t remember angels having lights over their heads specifically—or halos, as some would call them—but I also knew that Colton’s experience of angels in storybooks and Scripture did not include lights over angels’ heads. And he didn’t even know the word halo.
- “Well, what did God’s throne look like?” “It was big, Dad . . . really, really big, because God is the biggest one there is.”
- “And do you know that Jesus sits right next to God?” Colton went on excitedly. “Jesus’ chair is right next to his Dad’s!” “Colton, which side of God’s throne was Jesus sitting on?” I asked. Colton climbed up on the bed and faced me on his knees. “Well, pretend like you’re in God’s throne. Jesus sat right there,” he said, pointing to my right side.
- “Well, who sits on the other side of God’s throne?” I said. “Oh, that’s easy, Dad. That’s where the angel Gabriel is. He’s really nice.” Gabriel. That makes sense. I remembered the story of John the Baptist and the moment when Gabriel arrived to deliver the news of John the Baptist’s coming birth. The angel told Zechariah, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.”
- He saw the gates of heaven, he said: “They were made of gold and there were pearls on them.” The heavenly city itself was made of something shiny, “like gold or silver.”
- The flowers and trees in heaven were “beautiful,” and there were animals of every kind.
- “What does God look like?” I said. “God the Holy Spirit?” Colton furrowed his brow. “Hmm, that’s kind of a hard one . . . he’s kind of blue.”
- “Jesus shoots down power for Daddy when he’s talking.” Sonja shifted on the bed so that she could look directly into Colton’s eyes. “Okay . . . when? Like when Daddy talks at church?” Colton nodded. “Yeah, at church. When he’s telling Bible stories to people.”
- The book claims Colton met his sister in heaven and she was old enough to give him a hug and talk to him. But in real life, Sonja had a miscarriage and they never knew if the baby was a boy or girl. So the claim is the miscarried baby is now approximately 4-7 years old.
- The book claims Colton met his grandfather but the grandfather was not old. He was in the prime of his life. Colton says "No one is old in heaven."
I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for this review but I did really give my honest opinion
insightful review
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