PRAISE FOR HEAVEN IS FOR REAL
“You will be moved by the honest, simple, childlike accounts of a little boy who has been to heaven. It’s compelling and convincing. It’s a book you should read. If you’re ready to go to heaven, this book will inspire you. If you’re not ready for heaven, allow a little child to lead you. Like Colton says, Heaven Is for Real.”
— Don Piper
Speaker and Author, 90 Minutes
in Heaven
“Every now and again a manuscript comes across my desk where the title intrigues me. That’s what happened with this particular book called Heaven Is for Real. I thought I’d just skim through it, but I couldn’t put it down. I read it from cover to cover. I was so impacted by the story. It’s a book that will not only make you love God more and fear death less, but it will help you understand that heaven is not a place where we just sit around for a thousand years singing Kumbaya; it’s a place where we begin to live as we were always meant to live, before the fall. If heaven is something that intrigues you, or troubles you, if you wonder what our lives will be like, then I highly recommend this book.”
— Sheila Walsh WOF
Speaker and Author,
Beautiful Things Happen When
a Woman Trusts God
“Heaven is not a consolation prize. It is a real place that will be the eternal home for all who believe. Take a journey with Colton and Todd as they describe firsthand the wonders, mysteries, and majesty of heaven. It will make earth more meaningful and the future more hopeful.”
— Brady Boyd
Senior Pastor, New Life Church,
Colorado Springs
“There have been many stories of ‘near-death’ experiences that I simply have not read because I frankly didn’t know if I could trust the author. Well, I have read this book cover to cover and, moreover, I could hardly put it down! Why? Because I know the author and I believe him. Todd Burpo gives us a wonderful gift as he and his son lift the veil on eternity, allowing us a quick glimpse of what lies on the other side.”
— Dr. Everett
Piper President, Oklahoma Wesleyan
University
Author, Why I’m a Liberal and
Other Conservative Ideas
“In this beautiful and well-written book, Colton, age four, has an experience consistent with a near-death experience (NDE) while under anesthesia. I have scientifically studied over 1,600 NDEs, and found that typical NDEs may occur in very young children and while under anesthesia. Even after studying so many NDEs, I found Colton’s experience to be dramatic, exceptional, and an inspiration to Christians everywhere.”
— Jeffrey Long, MD
Founder, Near Death Experience
Research Foundation
Author, Evidence of the Afterlife:
The Science of Near-Death Experiences
“A beautifully written glimpse into heaven that will encourage those who doubt and thrill those who believe.”
— Ron Hall
Coauthor, Same Kind of
Different as Me
“Some stories want to be told. They simply have a life of their own. The book you hold in your hand is just such a story. But it won’t stay long with you; it will bubble over into your conversations in search of someone who has not yet heard. I know it will happen to you because that is what happened to me.”
— Phil McCallum
Senior Pastor, Evergreen
Community Church
Bothell, Washington
“The Bible describes heaven as the dwelling place of God. It is a real place that all those who submit their lives to God will have as an eternal dwelling. In this book Todd Burpo relays the account of his son’s experience when he was in surgery for a burst appendix. It is honest and touching and encouraging to all of us who have an eternal hope.”
— Robert Morris
Pastor, Gateway Church,
Southlake, Texas
“Heaven Is for Real is a wonderful book. It reaffirms how important faith is in our lives—for children as well as adults.”
— Timothy P. O’Holleran, MD
“Colton’s story could have been in the New Testament—but God has chosen to speak to us in this twenty-first century through the unblemished eyes of a child, revealing some of the mysteries of heaven. The writing is compelling and the truth astonishing, creating a hunger for more.”
— Jo Anne Lyon
General Superintendent,
The Wesleyan Church
“God is so creative and credible! The discoveries of this book will amplify that in new ways. I’ve known Colton since birth. As a toddler, he already had a keen spiritual interest and intensity. At about age 3, he sat on my knee, looked me in the eyes and asked if I wanted to go to heaven when I died. Then told me “You need to have Jesus in your heart.” I commend this book as a fresh perspective on the reality of God, who often seems hidden yet interrupts on His schedule.”
— Phil Harris
District Superintendent,
Colorado-Nebraska District of
the Wesleyan Church
“It is always a blessing to hear that Akiane’s paintings have touched another person’s life. Her Prince of Peace depiction of Christ remains one of her most beloved works. And as parents of a child that has experienced something extraordinary and unexplained by earthly measures, I celebrate with this family in their joy and in the telling of their special story.”
— Forelli Kramarik
Coauthor, Akiane: Her Life,
Her Heart, Her Poetry
Heaven Is for Real
Heaven Is for Real
A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back
Todd Burpo
with Lynn Vincent
© 2010 by Todd Burpo
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Author is represented by the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.
Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from Holy Bible, New Living Translation. © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from THE ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION. © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burpo, Todd.
Heaven is for real : a little boy’s astounding story
of his trip to heaven and back / Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8499-4615-8 (pbk.)
1. Heaven—Christianity. 2. Burpo, Colton, 1999– 3. Near-death experiences—Religious aspects—Christianity. I. Vincent, Lynn. II. Title.
BT846.3.B87 2010
133.901'3092—dc22 2010023391
Printed in the United States of America
10 11 12 13 14 EB 5 4 3 2 1
“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
—JESUS OF NAZARETH
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Prologue: Angels at Arby’s
1. The Crawl-A-See-Um
2. Pastor Job
3. Colton Toughs It Out
4. Smoke Signals
5. Shadow of Death
6. North Platte
7. “I Think This Is It”
8. Raging at God
9. Minutes Like Glaciers
10. Prayers of a Most Unusual Kind
11. Colton Burpo, Collection Agent
12. Eyewitness to Heaven
13. Lights and Wings
14. On Heaven Time
15. Confession
16. Pop
17. Two Sisters
18. The Throne Room of God
19. Jesus Really Loves the Children
20. Dying and Living
21. The First Person You’ll See
22. No One Is Old in Heaven
23. Power from Above
24. Ali’s Moment
25. Swords of the Angels
26. The Coming War
27. Someday We’ll See
Epilogue
Timeline of Events
Notes
About the Burpos
About Lynn Vincent
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In telling Colton’s story, we have been afforded the chance to not just work with dedicated professionals but with real and caring people. Sure, we have been impressed with their expertise, but Sonja and I have been more delighted by their character and their hearts.
Phil McCallum, Joel Kneedler, Lynn Vincent, and Debbie Wickwire have not just invested their own lives into the making of this book; they have also enriched our family. Without their enormous efforts and sensitive spirits, Heaven Is For Real would have never developed so wonderfully.
We thank God daily for assembling these gifted and talented people to help us tell Colton’s story. Each one has been a blessing to us.
Sonja and I count it a wonderful privilege to call them our friends.
PROLOGUE
Angels at Arby’s
The Fourth of July holiday calls up memories of patriotic parades, the savory scents of smoky barbecue, sweet corn, and night skies bursting with showers of light. But for my family, the July Fourth weekend of 2003 was a big deal for other reasons.
My wife, Sonja, and I had planned to take the kids to visit Sonja’s brother, Steve, and his family in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It would be our first chance to meet our nephew, Bennett, born two months earlier. Plus, our kids, Cassie and Colton, had never been to the falls before. (Yes, there really is a Sioux Falls in Sioux Falls.) But the biggest deal of all was this: this trip would be the first time we’d left our hometown of Imperial, Nebraska, since a family trip to Greeley, Colorado, in March had turned into the worst nightmare of our lives.
To put it bluntly, the last time we had taken a family trip, one of our children almost died. Call us crazy, but we were a little apprehensive this time, almost to the point of not wanting to go. Now, as a pastor, I’m not a believer in superstition. Still, some weird, unsettled part of me felt that if we just hunkered down close to home, we’d be safe. Finally, though, reason—and the lure of meeting little Bennett, whom Steve had told us was the world’s cutest baby—won out. So we packed up a weekend’s worth of paraphernalia in our blue Ford Expedition and got our family ready to head north.
Sonja and I decided the best plan would be to get most of the driving done at night. That way, even though Colton would be strapped into his car seat against his four-year-old, I’m-a-big-kid will, at least he’d sleep for most of the trip. So it was a little after 8 p.m. when I backed the Expedition out of our driveway, steered past Crossroads Wesleyan Church, my pastorate, and hit Highway 61.
The night spread clear and bright across the plains, a half moon white against a velvet sky. Imperial is a small farming town tucked just inside the western border of Nebraska. With only two thousand souls and zero traffic lights, it’s the kind of town with more churches than banks, where farmers stream straight off the fields into the family-owned café at lunchtime, wearing Wolverine work boots, John Deere ball caps, and a pair of pliers for fence-mending hanging off their hips. So Cassie, age six, and Colton were excited to be on the road to the “big city” of Sioux Falls to meet their newborn cousin.
The kids chattered for ninety miles to the city of North Platte, with Colton fighting action-figure superhero battles and saving the world several times on the way. It wasn’t quite 10 p.m. when we pulled into the town of about twenty-four thousand, whose greatest claim to fame is that it was the hometown of the famous Wild West showman, Buffalo Bill Cody. North Platte would be about the last civilized stop—or at least the last open stop—we’d pass that night as we headed northeast across vast stretches of cornfields empty of everything but deer, pheasant, and an occasional farmhouse. We had planned in advance to stop there to top off both the gas tank and our bellies.
After a fill-up at a Sinclair gas station, we pulled out onto Jeffers Street, and I noticed we were passing through the traffic light where, if we turned left, we’d wind up at the Great Plains Regional Medical Center. That was where we’d spent fifteen nightmarish days in March, much of it on our knees, praying for God to spare Colton’s life. God did, but Sonja and I joke that the experience shaved years off our own lives.
Sometimes laughter is the only way to process tough times, so as we passed the turnoff, I decided to rib Colton a little.
“Hey, Colton, if we turn here, we can go back to the hospital,” I said. “Do you wanna go back to the hospital?”
Our preschooler giggled in the dark. “No, Daddy, don’t send me! Send Cassie . . . Cassie can go to the hospital!”
Sitting next to him, his sister laughed. “Nuh-uh! I don’t wanna go either!”
In the passenger seat, Sonja turned so that she could see our son, whose car seat was parked behind mine. I pictured his blond crew cut and his sky-blue eyes shining in the dark. “Do you remember the hospital, Colton?” Sonja said.
“Yes, Mommy, I remember,” he said. “That’s where the angels sang to me.”
Inside the Expedition, time froze. Sonja and I looked at each other, passing a silent message: Did he just say what I think he said?
Sonja leaned over and whispered, “Has he talked to you about angels before?”
I shook my head. “You?”
She shook her head.
I spotted an Arby’s, pulled into the parking lot, and switched off the engine. White light from a street lamp filtered into the Expedition. Twisting in my seat, I peered back at Colton. In that moment, I was struck by his smallness, his little boyness. He was really just a little guy who still spoke with an endearing (and sometimes embarrassing) call-it-like-you-see-it innocence. If you’re a parent, you know what I mean: the age where a kid might point to a pregnant woman and ask (very loudly), “Daddy, why is that lady so fat?” Colton was in that narrow window of life where he hadn’t yet learned either tact or guile.
All these thoughts flashed through my mind as I tried to figure how to respond to my four-year-old’s simple proclamation that angels had sung to him. Finally, I plunged in: “Colton, you said that angels sang to you while you were at the hospital?”
He nodded his head vigorously.
“What did they sing to you?”
<
br /> Colton turned his eyes up and to the right, the attitude of remembering. “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.”
As Cassie giggled softly, I noticed that Colton’s answer had been quick and matter-of-fact, without a hint of hesitation.
Sonja and I exchanged glances again. What’s going on? Did he have a dream in the hospital?
And one more unspoken question: What do we say now?
A natural question popped into my head: “Colton, what did the angels look like?”
He chuckled at what seemed to be a memory. “Well, one of them looked like Grandpa Dennis, but it wasn’t him, ’cause Grandpa Dennis has glasses.”
Then he grew serious. “Dad, Jesus had the angels sing to me because I was so scared. They made me feel better.”
Jesus?
I glanced at Sonja again and saw that her mouth had dropped open. I turned back to Colton. “You mean Jesus was there?”
My little boy nodded as though reporting nothing more remarkable than seeing a ladybug in the front yard. “Yeah, Jesus was there.”
“Well, where was Jesus?”
Colton looked me right in the eye. “I was sitting in Jesus’ lap.”
If there are Stop buttons on conversations, that was one of them right there. Astonished into speechlessness, Sonja and I looked at each other and passed another silent telegram: Okay, we really need to talk about this.
We all piled out of the Expedition and trooped into Arby’s, emerging a few minutes later with a bag of grub. In between, Sonja and I exchanged whispers.
“Do you think he really saw angels?”
“And Jesus?!”
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