Heaven is for Real
Todd Burpo, 2010
Religion & spirituality Contemporary fiction
A Nebraska pastor's four-year-old survives emergency surgery and starts describing a heaven of rainbow colors and people he could not have known. His father tries to make sense of it.
Feels like wonder and grief. About faith, family and death.
A page from the book
The part of his family's story he can enjoy telling, and the part he can't.
It’s fun to talk about heaven, about the throne of God and Jesus and Pop and the daughter we thought we had lost but will meet again someday. But it’s not fun to talk about how we got there. Todd Burpo.Burpo is a Wesleyan pastor and volunteer firefighter in Imperial, Nebraska; he wrote the book with Lynn Vincent, co-author of Lone Survivor.
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Questions readers ask
- What is Heaven is for Real like?
- Feels like wonder and grief. About faith, family and death.
- What should I read after Heaven is for Real?
- If you liked Heaven is for Real, try Little House on the Prairie (Laura Ingalls Wilder), The Silver Chair (C.S. Lewis) and The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store (James McBride).
A taste of the feed
The prairie before anyone has claimed it, and the strange relief of being no one.
There was only the enormous, empty prairie, with grasses blowing in waves of light and shadow across it, and the great blue sky above it, and birds flying up from it and singing with joy because the sun was rising. And on the whole enormous prairie there was no sign that any other human being had ever been there.
Little House on the Prairie · Laura Ingalls Wilder
What if the only water is guarded by what frightens you?
I daren’t come and drink,“ said Jill. Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion. Oh dear!“ said Jill, coming another step nearer.”I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.“ There is no other stream,” said the Lion.
The Silver Chair · C.S. Lewis
The care it takes to make a question visible.
“You got a hole in your head, son? Was you riding the train this morning? Was that you?” Nate gently touched one of the boy’s hands. They were freezing. He placed the lamp high, holding it so that his lips could be seen. The boy had not been born deaf. An accident killed his hearing. A stove blew up in his mother’s kitchen when he was nine. Killed his eyes and ears. His eyes came back. His ears did not. But he could read lips. Nate held the lamp next to his face so Dodo could see them.
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store · James McBride
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