Heaven is for Real is a motion picture released in 2014 based on the book, Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back, published in 2010. It’s billed as the true life story of the Burpo family living in the small town of Imperial, Nebraska.
Todd Burpo, the father, is a local church pastor as well as a volunteer fire fighter and a high school wrestling coach. His wife, Sonja, is a stay-at-home mom. They have a daughter, Cassie, and a younger son, Colton.
The Burpo’s are beset with life’s problems. They have severe financial problems; Todd suffers from kidney stones and has injured his leg in a softball game. Despite these trials however–actually, because of them–Sonja organizes a family outing, a trip to Denver, where they visit a butterfly and spider sanctuary. After they return from Denver Colton becomes sick, and he is rushed to a medical center. He’s diagnosed with a ruptured appendix. There the doctors tell the family to prepare for the worst. The family’s friends pray for Colton’s recovery. In the depths of despair Todd, alone in the medical center’s chapel, asks God, “You gonna take my boy?” then yells at Him: “Don’t you take my son! Don’t you take my son!”
Colton eventually recovers, and then reveals incredible facts that no one has shared with him: he remembered leaving his body and, from celling height, sees his own body while he was on the hospital bed with his loved ones around him. He’s seen his father yelling at God while he was alone in the chapel, but most startling, he reveals that he went to Heaven and met Jesus. He also met his great-grandfather, Todd’s grandfather—who appeared as a young man, not old. Most astonishing of all, he met his ‘sister’. Initially Todd thinks that Colton means his current sister, Cassie. Then Colton reveals that it is not Cassie, but his other sister, who looks like Cassie, but a little shorter.
The story of Colton’s experiences becomes widely known and ushers in a new set of problems for the Burpo family. Cassie is mocked at school, the church elders are afraid that their church will be ripped apart, and a church member becomes somewhat bitter towards the Burpo family because her son died while the Burpo’s son lived.
Colton’s revelation of a sibling that was conceived before he was, but who died in the womb, I think, is the linchpin of the entire story, for little Colton had never been told that his mother had miscarried years before.
The power of the film I think is in its attempt to confirm the Christian’s belief of the hereafter with some semblance of objectivity. How can you refute the story of a child, who is little more than a toddler, and who possesses information that he was never given? There really is only one of two explanations for this. Either the entire family is lying, which implies that they have been able to get a young child to go along with this story for years, or the story is in fact true, for other than the complicity of the family, there is no other way that the child could have known about the things of which he spoke. There can only be one of the two interpretations, there is no middle ground. This clear distinction forces the story’s audience into one of three camps. Believers, especially true believers in Christ, will derive great comfort in this vision of Heaven, a vision shared by the most unassuming among us, a mere child, little older than a toddler. If on the other hand, you have no religious faith, you must believe that this entire story is a hoax. The third reaction is to simply ignore the film, and the questions it poses. Unfortunately I believe that a large segment of the public will fall into the last camp, especially those who do not wish to be challenged on issues of faith.
This is the type of story that can spark meaningful, public conversations about faith, about God. Imagine a debate based on the following questions: Is the Burpo family lying, delusional, or telling the truth? And why? Usually issues raised by stories such as this one posed by the Burpo’s are easily dismissed by the mainstream media who routinely bring in or cite ‘experts’ to discredit adults with similar stories. It is much more difficult to do so with a child, and not come across as a bully.
Many non-believers will probably skip this film simply because it is pro-faith, and ultimately pro-Christian—a position, I suggest, that is radioactive outside the Christian community.
The film-makers treat the subject matter with respect, referencing a similar story told by a girl in the Lithuania. Interestingly the girl is also an artist who has put her recollection of her visit to Heaven into her art, including a portrait of Jesus himself—and that portrait , unlike the many presentations we have become accustomed to—is of a bearded olive-skinned man with long black hair. When Colton is shown this portrait he asserts that, yes, this is the man who took him by the hand and walked with him in Heaven.
The film was produced by Joe Roth and Bishop T.D. Jakes, the nationally known pastor and influential leader of The Potters House, a 30,000 member, non-denominational church located in Dallas, Texas http://www.thepottershouse.org/Local/Visitors/Local/About-Us.aspx. T.D. Jakes has produced other features including Not Easily Broken (2009) and Jumping the Broom (2011).
Heaven is for Real stars Greg Kinnear (As Good as It Gets, Little Miss Sunshine) as Todd Burpo, Kelly Reilly (Sherlock Holmes, Flight) as Sonja, Thomas Haden Church (Spider-man 3) as Jay Wilkins, Todd’s best friend, Lane Styles as Cassie, and newcomer Connor Corum as Colton.
The film was extremely successful financially. Budgeted at an estimated $12 million, it was released in April of 2014 and raked in $91 million dollars in the U.S. alone http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1929263.
It is certainly inspirational, certainly affirming the beliefs of Christians, who undoubtedly is the film’s primary audience.