Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent

 My Grandpa passed away in October and my 6 and 4 year old boys have had a hard time understanding it all. Heaven is a vague term they’ve heard from church and their parents, but they don’t really know what that means. I was talking about this with my friend Carol and she told me about Heaven is For Real, as she had just seen something about it on TV.


I posted about it on Facebook and my friend Nancy from church loaned me her copy. It was an intriguing and inspiration story. Todd and Colton Burpo had been having a rough year. Todd had broken his leg, had kidney stones, and survived a cancer scare. The bills were mounting and Todd was unable to work at his part time job installing garage doors. His other job is as the pastor of a small Wesleyan Church. Todd and Sonja took their two kids; Colton and Cassie with them to a conference that Todd needed to attend. They had some great family time, but then the two kids got sick. At first, thinking it was the flu; they didn’t realize that four-year old Colton did not have what his sister had. He was in fact, much, much worse. He had appendicitis, but was misdiagnosed and was in grave danger. While being operated on, Colton went to Heaven, but then returned.

Todd and Sonja didn’t realize that Colton had been to heaven until months later. Colton started letting out bits and pieces of the story. He knew things that he shouldn’t have – the most astonishing being that he had a sister that was in heaven. Sonja had suffered a miscarriage before she had Colton and had never told him about it. Colton also met “Pop,” Todd’s Grandpa that had died while Todd was a little kid. Colton also knew where Todd and Sonja were in the hospital while he was gone and what they were doing. His trip to heaven was inspiring and matched scripture in many ways that Colton couldn’t have known about as a four-year old.

I enjoyed the book and read it quickly. It made me cry when Colton was so sick. Having a four-year old son of my own, I can’t imagine such a situation. I enjoyed reading about Colton’s trip to heaven and it was very inspirational

I also purchased Heaven is For Real for Kids. My sons love it and want us to read it to them each night. It was a great book for really showing kids was heaven is all about from a kid's prospective. It may have made my boys a little too enthusiastic however. Danny declared that he wants to have wings and fly so he’s ready to go to heaven right now. I told him that most people don’t make the trip back from heaven, so I don’t want him to make the journey until he is a very old man! The book is beautifully illustrated and unlike any other children’s book I’ve read before. If you’ve experienced a recent death in the family, or just want to teach your children about heaven, this book is perfect!

Book Source: Heaven is For Real was borrowed from my friend Nancy, Heaven is For Real for Kids was purchased from Amazon.com.