How Heaven Is for Real shows trends in American religion
The movie Heaven Is for Real—based on the book by the same name—tells the story of minister Todd Burpo and his four-year-old son Colton. The main plot revolves around Colton’s near-death experience and his claims that while undergoing surgery he visited heaven and sat on Jesus’ lap. Burpo struggles to define what happened to Colton for himself as well as for the community of faith to which he ministers.
Colton’s experience and the apparent extrasensory information it supplies (like knowing about his mother’s miscarriage of an older sister) pull various characters in different directions as they try to make sense of these events. The book made the New York Times’ best-seller list, and both it and the movie bill events described as a true story.
As a father, I was moved while viewing the fictionalized version of the Burpos’ experience as I considered how I might have responded if it were my daughter in Colton’s place. The fears and hopes, uncertainties and faith, love and loss, all resonated with what must have been an exceptional experience for this family.
