Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back

by Todd Burpo

“I was sitting in Jesus’ lap.”

“Dad, Jesus used Dr. O’Holleran to help fix me,” he said, standing at the end of the counter with his hands on his hips. “You need to pay him.”

Jesus told me I had to be nice.”

“In heaven, Dad. That’s where all the rainbow colors are.”

I’d once heard a spiritual “riddle” that went like this: “What’s the only thing in heaven that’s the same as it was on earth?” The answer: the wounds in Jesus’ hands and feet.

What is childlike humility? It’s not the lack of intelligence, but the lack of guile. 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. The same un-self-conscious honesty that enables a three-year-old to splash joyfully in a rain puddle, or tumble laughing in the grass with a puppy, or point out loudly that you have a booger hanging out of your nose, is what is required to enter heaven. 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.

It was also possible that time in heaven doesn’t track with time on earth. The Bible says that with the Lord, “a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”1 Some interpret that as a literal exchange, as in, two days equals two thousand years. I’ve always taken it to mean that God operates outside of our understanding of time. Time on earth is keyed to a celestial clock, governed by the solar system. But the Bible says there is no sun in heaven because God is the light there. Maybe there is no time in heaven. At least not as we understand it.

“Well, the reason I was yelling was that Jesus came to get me. He said I had to go back because he was answering your prayer. That’s how come I was yelling for you.”

I was reminded yet again that I could be real with God, I told my fellow pastors. I learned that I didn’t have to offer some kind of churchy, holy-sounding prayer in order to be heard in heaven. “You might as well tell God what you think,” I said. “He already knows it anyway.”

when I was angry at God because I couldn’t go to my son, hold him, and comfort him, God’s son was holding my son in his lap.

“Well, what did God’s throne look like?” “It was big, Dad . . . really, really big, because God is the biggest one there is. And he really, really loves us, Dad. You can’t belieeeeve how much he loves us!”

“Jesus’ chair is right next to his Dad’s!”

“Well, who sits on the other side of God’s throne?” I said. “Oh, that’s easy, Dad. That’s where the angel Gabriel is. He’s really nice.”

“I was sitting by God the Holy Spirit because I was praying for you. You needed the Holy Spirit, so I prayed for you.”

“Hmm, that’s kind of a hard one . . . he’s kind of blue.”

“It doesn’t get dark in heaven,

“God and Jesus light up heaven. It never gets dark. It’s always bright.”

“The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.”7

“Remember, Jesus really loves the children.”

“Well, Jesus told me he died on the cross so we could go see his Dad.”

“It’s going to be okay. The first person you’re going to see is Jesus.”

“Dad, nobody’s old in heaven,” Colton said. “And nobody wears glasses.”

“Mom, Satan’s not in hell yet,” Colton said, almost scolding. “The angels carry swords so they can keep Satan out of heaven!”

“There’s going to be a war, and it’s going to destroy this world. Jesus and the angels and the good people are going to fight against Satan and the monsters and the bad people. I saw it.”

God can reach anyone, anywhere, at any age

And his eyes are just beautiful.”

When I was a kid, I always wondered why the cross, Jesus’ crucifixion, was such a big deal. If God the Father knew he was going to raise his Son from the dead, how was that a sacrifice? But now I understand why God doesn’t view Easter as just the endgame, just the empty tomb. I understand completely. I would’ve done anything, anything, to stop Colton’s suffering, including trading places with him.

The Scripture says that as Jesus gave up his spirit, as he sagged there, lifeless on that Roman cross, God the Father turned his back. I am convinced that he did that because if he had kept on watching, he couldn’t have gone through with it.

It’s good to be strong and able to bless others, yes. But we learned the value of being vulnerable enough to let others be strong for us, to let others bless us. That, it turned out, was a blessing to them as well.

“I want them to know that heaven is for real.”