Four
months after Colton Burpo miraculously survived a life-threatening burst
appendix, his parents began to suspect that something rather extraordinary had
happened to him.
There
were signs of change in their son not long after the operation, but it took a
while for them to understand the ‘truth’.
The first
unusual occurrence was when Todd and Sonja returned from the hospital to their
home in Nebraska in March 2003 to find a pile of bills.
Colton
Burpo, from Nebraska, U.S, miraculously survived a life-threatening burst appendix
in March 2003 and claims to have gone to Heaven and met Jesus while on the
operating table
They
baulked at the £14,000 bill from the hospital that had saved the life of their
then four-year-old son. But Colton told them they had to pay the surgeon — as
Jesus had, ‘used him to help fix me’.
When they
later told him off for not sharing his toys with other children, he apologised
immediately.
Not
because of their intervention, but because, ‘Jesus told me I had to be nice,’
he explained.
Weeks
later, when Todd — a Methodist minister — was about to officiate at a funeral,
Colton pointed at the coffin and shouted: ‘He can’t get into Heaven if he
didn’t have Jesus in his heart!’
His parents were both committed
Christians and wanted their children to believe, too. But how, they wondered,
did Colton know so much about God and what He wanted?
Then
their son told them what he experienced on the operating table.
While the
surgeons had battled to save him and his parents prayed fervently, Colton had
gone to Heaven and met Jesus.
Colton’s
extraordinary claims — and the response of his family and those in their local
town — have been made into a blockbuster Hollywood film which is now to be
shown in British cinemas.
Starring
Greg Kinnear and British actress Kelly Reilly as Mr and Mrs Burpo, Heaven Is
For Real has already stormed the U.S. box office, taking £31 million in
two weeks.
The film
and the best-selling book it’s based on have captivated the U.S., inspiring
churchgoers and non-believers alike with a simple but comforting tale of a
little boy who discovers there is an afterlife and that Heaven really is the
eternal paradise of Christian belief.
Actor
Connor Corum, left, plays Colton alongside his father, played by Greg Kinnear,
right, in Hollywood blockbuster Heaven Is For Real
The book
— written by Todd Burpo — has been phenomenally successful since it was
published in 2010. It has sold ten million copies and been translated into 39
languages. It spent more than 60 weeks as the No 1 non-fiction paperback
on the New York Times bestseller list.
The
success of the book and the film are in large part due to Colton’s claims that
he didn’t just snatch a glimpse of Heaven through the clouds, but experienced
paradise in glorious detail.
He
recalled how he had sat on Jesus’s lap, patted his multi-coloured striped horse
and was serenaded by winged angels.
The Son
of God even gave Colton some homework to do. Christ, he recalled distinctly,
wore a beard and crown and had ‘pretty’ eyes, which ‘were just sort of a
sea-blue and they seemed to sparkle’.
Christ
did indeed sit on the right hand of God, who was too vast to describe, and near
the Holy Spirit, who was a ‘kind of blue’ colour. Colton also saw John the
Baptist, Jesus’s mother Mary and even Satan — though he was always too upset to
describe the Devil.
Everyone
flew around on wings, except Jesus who ‘went up and down like an elevator’.
There were trees, animals and a multitude of people, all in their prime of
life.
After
these revelations, Jesus returned Colton to Earth in answer to Todd’s prayers.
When they heard this story, Colton’s parents were dumbfounded. Colton couldn’t
read at the time and they were certain they hadn’t told him any of the details
he mentioned. Nor could they believe that a boy who wasn’t yet four could have
made it up.
Colton
even said Jesus had red ‘markers’ on his hands and feet — from nails used in
the crucifixion.
Based on a true story, Heaven Is
For Real trailer
Colton
Burpo, pictured playing with toys while his mother Sonja Burpo works behind
him, woke up from an operation with the story of death and heaven, which has
been turned into a 163-page book called Heaven Is for Real
‘Here was
my kid, in his matter-of-fact, pre-schooler voice, telling me things that were
not only astonishing on their face, but that also matched Scripture in every
detail, right down to the rainbow colors in the book of Revelation, which is
hardly pre-school material,’ wrote Todd. ‘How could my little boy know this
stuff?’
Sceptics
— and there have been many — have put it down to hallucinations as a result of
the anesthetics Colton was given, combined with the vivid imagination of a
child raised on Bible stories.
And, they
point out, Colton didn’t actually die during the operation. Todd told me he was
initially suspicious, too. But then came a series of astonishing revelations
from Colton.
The boy
knew, for instance, that his parents were in separate rooms while he was in
surgery. He had seen them from Heaven, he said.
Colton
also said he had been hugged by his great-grandfather in Heaven — a man who had
died 30
years before he was born. Colton identified him from a photo, taken
when the great-grandfather was 29.
And the
boy — who has an older sister and younger brother — started talking about the
‘other’ sister he met in Heaven. Sure enough, his mother once miscarried — a
girl.
'How
could my little boy know this stuff?'
