In my mind, this started out as a book review, but I'm not sure I can strictly call it that, as I'm still doing a lot of processing. The book in question is a now-popular little paperback titled Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back, by Todd Burpo, with Lynn Vincent. Thomas Nelson published the book in 2010. If I had set this up as a book review, I would have needed to give the number of pages, but mine is on Kindle; I don't have page numbers.
Todd Burpo is a Wesleyan pastor and business owner who wears several other hats, not the least of which is the one he wears as the father of Cassie and Colton Burpo (Colby came along later). The story is primarily about Colton's illness due to a ruptured appendix; about his out-of-body experience, which he confirmed by stating where in the hospital he saw his dad, where in the hospital he saw his mom, and what each of them was doing--all while he was in surgery; and about his time in heaven. Colton did not come out of surgery talking about heaven, but over a period of at least a couple of years, as he remembered things, he mentioned them to his parents.
Keep in mind that Colton was not yet four years old, when his appendix ruptured and continuing spreading poison into his body for five days, before his parents could get a good diagnosis. By that time, Colton had the look of death about him, a look his pastor-dad had seen on many elderly people, as their lives on this earth were coming to an end. Doctors had to operate twice to get him cleaned out.
Later, when Colton began talking about sitting on Jesus' lap and began describing Jesus and his clothes (or, for King James readers, raiment), his dad thought, Wow. Our Sunday School teachers are really doing a good job! But as Colton's revelations of his time in heaven began to include other people he met--Jesus' cousin (John, of course), a great-grandfather who had died long before Colton was born, and a sister who had died in utero (also before Colton was born)--his parents knew they were receiving a gift of monumental proportions.
Other descriptions included angels and what they wore; seeing the Holy Spirit ("He's kinda blue"); seeing angels wielding their swords--yes, swords, in heaven--in the ongoing battle with Satan and all his fallen angels; and seeing the very throne of God. Much that not-yet 4-year-old Colton described we can read in scripture, which the author cited in Notes at the back of the book.
I found real comfort--not pablum, not an opiate, but comfort in much of what Colton experienced, with one exception: Satan--the fact that he continues to fight to dominate heaven, and Colton's reaction when his dad asked what Satan looked like.
