Heaven is for Real A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back By Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent is a book based on the true events of a four year old boy's visit to heaven. The book itself was written by his father, but simply retells the conversations he has had over a period of time with his son. As the father of a four year old boy myself I was very interested in reading this story. I have read many books on heaven, people's visions and encounters but none that involved someone so young. What sets this one apart from all the others is the simplicity and innocence of heaven explained through the eyes of a child. This is not a story about white fluffly clouds but rather a divine revelation of heaven given to a child. The descriptions from the mouth of this child (Colton) is very convincing and makes it hard to deny that he truly did have this heavenly encounter as a lot of what he say's matches up with scripture. There are several points I can remember being blown away and having my heart encouraged by the way Colton describes how Jesus feels for his children. As I read I could picture my 4 year old using many of the same descriptions had it happened to him.
As much as I believe this child had an encounter there was something that tripped me up in the book a little bit. This was simply the idea that everybody in heaven had wings. I'm not writing off the book because of this, simply because I have not personally been to heaven. This is just something that I have never thought to be a truth about heaven. I also realize that a lot of Colton's descriptions came months after the event and it is entirely possible that a child's imagination can run wild. With an open mind I am also open to being proved wrong when I see heaven for myself.
The book itself was well written and very easy to read. If you have a good chunk of time it would not be difficult to read the book in it's entirely in one sitting. I recommend this book to anybody, it is a different perspective than what you would normally have, it is encouraging and it gets you thinking about heaven (which is always a good thing).
This book was provided by Nelson House Publishers for my review. I was not required to give this book a positive review.
