Heaven Is Real

Heaven is a place that is as real as any place here on Earth. Many people, including young children, have experienced life after death and have told about those experiences. Children who have never met one another describe Heaven in great detail and with many similarities.

Many people throughout history have claimed to have had near death experiences that have led to glimpses of an afterlife. There have been books written and movies made about the experiences. There has been no “proof” of this happening, except for the stories from hundreds of thousands of people.

In the book, Heaven Is For Real, by Todd Burpo, Todd tells the story of his son’s visit to Heaven. His son, Colton, had emergency surgery after a burst appendix. At first, no one knew of Colton’s trip to Heaven. Throughout the next few months, however, Colton began to tell about the things he had seen in Heaven. He mentioned relatives that had died before him, including a sister he never knew about and a grandfather that had died more than twenty years before his birth. He talked about what God looked like and what Jesus had looked like. He mentioned that the pictures we see of Jesus aren’t really accurate and provided a detailed description. He mentioned talks he had with Jesus and others while in Heaven. He talked about things that, as a four year old, he shouldn’t know about.

He could tell his parents where they were while he was in surgery. He spoke of a conversation he had with his younger sister, who told him that she had died in her mommy’s tummy. He recognized a picture of his father’s grandfather – whom he had never met on earth. He talked about all of this without prompting from his parents – his parents just let him talk about this information about Heaven and heard his point of views and tried really hard not to interject their point of views into the conversation. (Burpo)

Another little boy who has been to Heaven is Alex Malarkey. He and his father were involved in a near fatal accident. Alex was in a coma for months. He was not expected to live. The book, The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, by Kevin Malarkey, describes the adventures of Alex as he visited Heaven. Alex speaks of being brought to Heaven’s gates by angels. He speaks of meeting and speaking with Jesus.

He also speaks of being able to see his parents during times that he shouldn’t have been able to see them. He told his parents where they were at during a helicopter trip to the hospital, when he had no way of seeing them. He told them where they were when he was in surgery.

Alex also speaks about how Satan is evil and the lies he tells in order to fool people. He talks about the angels fighting for his life and the life of others. He tells particularly about Satan trying to convince Alex that his father didn’t care about him and left him to die. Satan told him that the accident had been his father’s fault and other lies in order to convince Alex that his father was not a good person. He describes in detail what Satan looked like, and what the angels that were protecting him looked like. (Malarkey)

Last summer, a one and a half year old boy went to the cemetery with his grandmother. She had gone to visit the gravesite of her mother, a place the little boy had never been. As soon as he was put on the ground, he ran up to his great-grandmother’s headstone and gave it a kiss. He then began running with the wind, reaching out and trying to grab it as he ran. As he ran, he also began yelling, “I run, I run, I run with Grandma Joy!” He had never heard anyone refer to his great-grandmother this way. In the following year, this boy brought up his Grandma Joy often, telling things about her that he shouldn’t know since he had only met her once, when he was only three months old. He can identify pictures that he had never seen before as Grandma Joy, as well.

In the book, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife, by Eben Alexander, M.D., describes the near death experience of the author. Dr. Alexander wanted to believe in God and an afterlife, but his training as a neurosurgeon it was hard for him to find the proof he needed. When he was in a coma for a week, he found all the proof he needed. He met God himself. He had conversations and experiences that he couldn’t explain with science and he had to believe because it was happening to him. (Alexander)

Many years ago, a man, Jerry, was involved in a motorcycle accident. It was pretty severe, and we were in the middle of the desert. It took a while for an ambulance to get to the scene of the accident, and then took even longer to get him to the closest hospital. At the hospital, he was pronounced dead. He was taken to the morgue where they were about to prepare his body for the mortuary, when all of a sudden he sat up and yelled. He had been “dead” for more than half an hour by that time.

He was asked if he experienced any “near death” activity while he had been pronounced dead. At that time, he said that he hadn’t seen any white lights, or voices, or any of the other things that others had described. But as he grew older, especially after he was diagnosed with cancer, he began mentioning things about the afterlife. He had heard voices, seen shadows of people, had seen the white light. He had just been too afraid to admit it, especially since, at the time, he told everyone that he didn’t believe in God or any kind of afterlife.

All of these stories have things in common. Children who know things they shouldn’t know. A pure belief that, not only is Heaven real, but it has been visited by people who have come back to tell the world what it is like. All of these stories tell about the undying faith in these people that there is an afterlife, and if we live the right kind of life, we all can see it.

The young boys from the books, and the neurosurgeon, describe Heaven in similar ways. They all describe seeing things that were happening around them while they were unconscious. They all talk about seeing God and Jesus, and having conversations with both. They talk about the way Heaven looks. All describe conversations they had with people who had passed on before them. The little boy had a conversation with someone who had died when he was an infant. Jerry was able to describe what Heaven looked like to him.

All of these stories have so many similarities that it is hard to not believe that Heaven is a great place that does exist. They all describe angels, Satan or evil, God and Jesus. They describe lush landscapes that are what we all imagine Eden must have looked like. They were all given information that they were supposed to share.

Others have also written or told about their experiences with life after death. Many of the stories have similarities. There are always minor differences about the experiences, and it seems that children are given a different view than adults, but all describe a unique goodness of a place and beings that they visited.

Heaven is real, and there are people who have been there. Children, who have nothing to gain by sharing their experiences, have told about how wonderful it is. Medical professionals, who find such things hard to believe because no science can prove it, have told about their grand adventures. They have nothing to gain by relaying their experiences, except honor in God’s eyes.

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