Want a tip to keep your sanity on the MRT? read. It takes a little bit of acrobatics but it pays off. You forget about being squeezed and jostled about. Heaven is for real by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent is the latest I finished in these adventurous train rides. It’s an unpretentious little book that could very well be an antidote for existentialism.
It chronicles 4-year old Colton Burpo’s trip to “heaven” and back in a matter of fact manner it disarms even the most staunch skeptic. A misdiagnosis (a bum stomach dismissed as intestinal flu) spelled much suffering for poor Colton: endless vomiting left him weak and unable to eat. Standing by the doctor’s diagnosis, Colton’s parents helplessly watched their miserable kid fade away before their eyes until they could take no more and rushed for a second opinion. A split-second more and they would have lost Colton. A quick MRI and CT scan –which scared the wits out of the poor boy- revealed a ruptured appendix already infecting his other organs. What followed were nightmarish days of waiting and hoping until Colton miraculously bounced back to his former self.
In the days that followed, the spunky 4-year old would blurt out things that made his parents freeze: how he saw everything that was happening in the hospital during his sickness when he was practically unconscious; his meeting with Pop, his grandfather who died long before he was born; an older sister whom he never knew because his mom lost her in a miscarriage; of Jesus sitting at the right hand of an old majestic Man which he definitely did not read from Scriptures; of angel Gabriel and wars with dragons; of good people who get there and those who go to hell, etc.
There are many other near-death experiences immortalized in books. But Heaven is for real shines with extraordinary brilliance because of the protagonist, Colton, a veritable toddler. It’s hard to contest what comes from the mouth of babes as they say. What for him was simply an adventure covers a whole course on Eschatology – the science of the last things.
When life sometimes makes you doubt if heaven is for real, here’s a good read. But beyond the warm fuzzy feeling, take the challenge. Ask yourself: am I doing what it takes to get there?
Jing, no regrets in signing up here. Thanks so much. Mon P.
hi there! glad you liked it!
An enjoyable book… Cheers!
thanks for lending me hahaha!