Heaven Is for Real by Todd, Sonya, and Colton Burpo with Lynn Vincent

Subtitle is A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back. Colton Burpo, at age three, had a ruptured appendix and almost died in surgery. In fact, he says that he was dead for three minutes. His parents, Todd and Sonya, subsequently realized that their son had what most people call a near death experience.

I literally could not tear myself away from this story once I started reading. The father tells the story of events leading up to Colton's surgery. Besides the detail of the events, he shares the anguish that he and his wife went through while Colton was in surgery and during his recovery. Because Colton was so young, he had few preconceived notions of what heaven is like. Therefore, the bits and pieces of information that he offered over the years finally convinced his parents that he had actually seen heaven. Since the father is a pastor, he was able to match Colton's experiences with Bible accounts in a very effective way.

I was reminded of Don Pipers' 90 Minutes in Heaven, but there is a major difference. Piper was telling of his own experience. He is an adult and a pastor. The Burpos held my attention because they had to be detectives to piece together what had happened to Colton. And, they didn't run right out and write a book. They waited until they felt they had the whole, accurate story and are now telling it in a calm and thoughtful way.

I predict that this book will be a "runaway best-seller." I certainly recommend it.

Buy it on Amazon in Kindle or paper format.

Note: Although I get free books for the Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger program, I actually purchased this book in Kindle format.

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