Heaven is for Real

A near death experience that lends itself to objective confirmation was reported by a four-year-old child as he lay on an operating table fighting for his life. What is interesting is that the reality of his event was independently confirmed by a four-year-old girl living half a continent away. Later, at the age of eight she painted an incredibly beautiful portrait of the Jesus she saw in heaven.

We will first consider the vision of heaven from this little Nebraska boy and described in the book, Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back. In 2003 little Colton Burpo nearly died on an operating table while undergoing a major operation. Over the following months he gradually revealed to his minister father, Todd Burpo, in bits and pieces and in the vocabulary of a four-year-old what happened on that operating table and his visit to heaven and being with Jesus. Since his father is a minister, that by itself is not terribly surprising.

But what is surprising are details of his family and other information that four-year-old Colton should not have known. Moreover, this little child of a Protestant minister saw Mary, the mother of Jesus, kneeling before the throne of God and standing next to Jesus. The favored place of Mary in heaven is a concept either ignored or rejected by Protestants. Colton’s description of Mary’s place flew in the face of what he would have learned. Colton said that Mary “still loves him [Jesus] like a mom.” Mary’s presence in heaven close to Jesus would be a dogma or teaching quite alien to little Colton.

Over the next few years, Colton was asked if any painting or representation of Jesus that he looked at accurately depicted Jesus. None of them did. That is, not until he saw the Prince of Peace, a painting by eight-year old Akiane Kramarik.

The Prince of Peace

Colton is the son of a minister. Akiane Kramarik was the daughter of non-religious and lived a half a continent apart from Colton. When she was four, she started having visions of heaven, and they sound remarkably like Colton’s. Over a three-year period, Colton’s parents had shown him various paintings of Jesus, and Colton told them that none of them were right. When Colton was seven, Todd Burpo (Colton’s father) had just learned of the child prodigy Akiane and her paintings, including her portrait of Jesus, painted when she was eight years old. Todd called his son to the computer where the full front face painting appeared and asked him what was wrong with this painting. Colton studied it for a bit, looked at his father and said, “Dad, that one’s right.”

Todd explains, “We were pretty sure no painting could ever capture the majesty of the person of the risen Christ. But after three years of examining Jesus pictures, we did know that Akiane’s rendering was not only a departure from typical paintings of Jesus; it was also the only one that had ever stopped Colton in his tracks. Sonja and I thought it was interesting that when Colton said, “This one’s right,” he hadn’t known the portrait, called Prince of Peace: The Resurrection, was painted by another child—a child who had also claimed to visit heaven.”   (Heaven is for Real, Chapter 12)

Akiane paints the portrait of Jesus

This painting and the following quotations are from the website, God Reports.

            “At eight-years-old, Akiane decided she wanted to paint the face of Jesus, based on the visions she received. She looked for a person she might use as an artist’s model for a long time, and finally told her family they should pray for God to send someone.

            “On the day they prayed, a mysterious carpenter showed up at their front door looking for work. Akiane took one look at the man’s facial features – remarkably close to the vision she received – and told her mother he was the one.

            “In humility, the man initially said he was not worthy to represent his Master. But reluctantly, the man agreed, although he asked to remain anonymous.

            “Akiane’s painting of Jesus was a painstaking effort. ‘The ‘Prince of Peace’ took me 40 hours to paint and another 20 hours of working with model sketching,’ Akiane says. Akiane deftly works with light and shadows to create powerful impressions. ‘The light side of his face represents the truth, the dark side represents suffering,’ she notes.”

Heaven is love

The trouble with heaven, eternity, and God’s plan of salvation is that they are way beyond our ability to understand them. When visions of heaven and hell are given, or ostensibly given, they sometimes differ. What is interesting is that they are given in terms that the recipient can relate to, but do not conflict. It is kind of like the old story of two blind men running their hands over different parts of an elephant and describing what they think the creature looks like. In effect, this is precisely what Jesus told us. Heaven and eternity are far beyond our ability to see, much less understand. Consequently, we are left again with the fundamental premise or theological underpinning of Christianity: We need to trust Jesus and hold on to a child-like faith.

I think that is the reason scoffers scoff. They rely upon their own intelligence and logic (but with unacknowledged biases) and are unable to see. For them, that which cannot be seen, touched or is apparent to the senses is a fiction. They stumble because self-reliance is inadequate. Consequently, when the witnesses describe what they have seen, and felt, and heard, these experiences are dismissed by the scoffer as hallucinations, dreams, lies, chemical imbalances, etc. because according to the metaphysical world of the skeptic, these visions or experiences simply cannot be real.

What do all these witnesses say about heaven? What is the one characteristic that permeates all descriptions? Everyone says they experienced a profound sense of love and beauty that are impossible to describe. The love and beauty of heaven and Jesus are overpowering and indescribable. That is precisely what the Bible tells us.

Believe to understand.

Some websites and references

Footnotes and Attributions

Painting of Jesus by Akiane Kramarik retrieved from  God Reports website.

Last modified June 3, 2020