The little boy who says he went to Heaven - then came back! How four-year-old's startlingly vivid account of meeting God has gripped America and become a Hollywood film
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.
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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.
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.
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 colours 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 anaesthetics 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?'
- Todd Burpo
His
parents insist Colton knew nothing about this before his operation.
So-called ‘To-Heaven-and-Back’ books about near-death experiences occupy
their own lucrative niche in U.S. publishing.
Even in Britain, polls show that just over half the population believes in an afterlife and Heaven.
Colton’s account has resonated so strongly, his father told me, because it comes from an innocent rather than an adult.
‘People
realise he was too young for his brain to play tricks with him. And
children don’t have an agenda,’ he said. But, some sceptics have asked,
is it entirely Colton’s account? For a pastor keen to spread the Good
Word, Colton’s trip has been quite a godsend for his dad.
Without
wanting to cast doubt on the Burpos’ integrity and honesty, read the
book or see the film and it’s hard not to conclude that Colton could
have got most of what he saw from leafing through Bible story picture
books and listening to his father in church.
Residents
of their small town — even members of Todd’s congregation — turned on
the family over Colton’s claims. Some church members objected to
Colton’s slushy ‘God is love’ message.
As
the book’s popularity grew, conservative Christians attacked it for
adopting a scripturally inaccurate view of Heaven. The Bible, they say,
makes no mention of people in Heaven having wings.
The Burpos have even received death threats and have a police escort when they speak publicly.
Only
in America, wrote one atheist sceptic, could this book be classified as
non-fiction. Todd urges British viewers to keep an open mind.
The Burpo family, (left to right; Sonja,
Cassie, Todd, Colton and Cole, front) at the Dallas International Film
Festival World Premiere of Heaven Is For Real
‘They’ll
see a child, in a very innocent way, tell the truth. People need to ask
themselves: if their own child went round saying these things, how
would they react?’
But
most people, if their four-year-old started describing heavenly
visions, wouldn’t write a book about it. The Burpos have wringed out
three, including a sequel, Heaven Changes Everything, and a children’s
picture book version. They have been accused of making millions from the
story.
Mr
Burpo won’t reveal how much they have earned but says they have given
much of it away to feed starving children around the world. He employs
13 staff in his church and travels the world on speaking tours.
But
the family still live in the same four-bedroom family house he bought
for £60,000. His wife still works for a local estate agent and he’s a
volunteer part-time fireman.
‘We’re
content with our existing lifestyle but I’m discovering just how
negatively some people react to success,’ he says. ‘The success of the
book and film shows God is honouring our honesty and the fact we haven’t
embellished the story.’
Colton,
no longer a pint-sized prophet, is just a normal 14-year-old boy, who
loves wrestling, squabbling with his sister and ‘has the same growing-up
issues other teenagers have’, according to his father.
He
still sticks to what he says he saw nearly a decade ago. ‘Heaven is
such an amazing place — I didn’t want to come back,’ he says.
And what about the question to which we’d all like an answer: does everyone go to Heaven?
‘No,’
says Colton, who saw angels with swords guarding the gates. ‘God really
does love you but many of us are too attached to things on this Earth —
and they aren’t allowed in Heaven.’
Four-year-old boys, with media-savvy pastor fathers, on the other hand, are more than welcome.
I believe him, and I believe Jesus Christ is God in human flesh.
ReplyDeleteMoney money money. Lies lies lies.
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