"Heaven is for Real" by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent.
I just finished reading this great little book last night. A good friend gave it to me this past Christmas 2011.
We're only less than one month into the 2012 American political season to choose a President, and I just needed a mental rest. I needed a mental shower as it were. I finally picked this book up from my reading pile and literally didn't put it down! Actually finished it in 2 nights. Pretty astounding for a guy who is not a fast reader.
This book is a such a blessing. There is something "drop dead" honest about a child and what and how they experience things.
This a glimpse of Heaven itself through a 4 year old boy's eyes. It is his experience.
The author Todd Burpo says of his son Colton's innocence and faith (as Jesus said, we are all to have the faith of a child), childlike humility is "not the lack of intelligence, but the lack of guile [cleverness or craftiness]. The lack of an agenda. It's that precious, fleeting time before we have accumulated enough pride or position to care what other people might think... It is the opposite of ignorance--it is intellectual honesty: to be willing to accept reality and to call things what they are even when it is hard."
Many who deny or even deride the Christian faith will criticize this book and it's beliefs and "teachings". But you know what? True Christianity, not religion, is personal. True Christianity is a relationship - it is a relationship with the Living God.
I will read this book again and again. And quote from it again and again.
Some will believe, some won't. If you don't believe, well, you can certainly go and interview any friends, neighbors, doctors, nurses, anyone in the community - or you can ask God to reveal Himself directly to you.
Here's an interview to watch with Pat Boone...
