Heaven Is For Real

If you haven't heard of this book or read it, you must!  I think I read it in 3 days... I could hardly put it down!  It's the story of a preschooler named Colton, who seems to have an experience of heaven during an emergency appendectomy surgery.  In so many ways, it reminded me of my own surgery and my own hospital stay last year and my own hopes of heaven.  The title of the book is perfect: this child's explanation of heaven brings it close... It's not so far off as we think. Heaven is for real.

And so is Jesus... This was my favorite part of the book.  I was reading it while on the elliptical at my new apartment complex and it took my breath away.  A mundane, regular, every day thing instantly became holy.  Jesus is in heaven, and Jesus is in me, and Jesus is real.  Crazy.

“What did Jesus look like?” I said (Colton's dad).
Abruptly, Colton put down his toys and looked up at me. “Jesus has markers.”

“What?”

“Markers, Daddy… Jesus has markers. And he has brown hair and he has hair on his face,” he said, running his tiny palm around on his chin. I guess that he didn’t yet know the word beard. “And his eyes… oh, Dad, his eyes are so pretty!”

As he said this, Colton’s face grew dreamy and far away, as if enjoying a particularly sweet memory.

“What about his clothes?”

Colton snapped back into the room and smiled at me. “He had purpule on.” As he said this, Colton put his hand on his left shoulder, moved it across his body down to his right hip then repeated the motion. “His clothes were white, and it was purple from here to here.”

Another word he didn’t know: sash.

“Jesus was the only one in heaven who had purple on, Dad. Did you know that?”

In Scripture, purple is the color of kings. A verse from the gospel of Mark flashed through my mind: “His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.”

“And he had this gold thing on his head…” Colton chirped on enthusiastically. He put both hands on top of his head in the shape of a circle.

“Like a crown?”

“Yeah, a crown, and it had this… this diamond thing in the middle of it and it was pink. And he has markers, Dad.”

What are markers to a little kid?

Suddenly, I had it. “Colton, you said Jesus had markers. You mean like markers that you color with?”

Colton nodded. “Yeah, like colors. He had colors on him.”

“Like when you color a page?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, what color are Jesus’ markers?”

“Red, Daddy. Jesus has red markers on him.”

At that moment, my throat nearly closed with tears as I suddenly understood what Colton was trying to say. Quietly, carefully, I said, “Colton, where are Jesus’ markers?”

Without hesitation, he stood to his feet. He held out his right hand, palm up and pointed to the center of it with his left. Then he held out his left palm and pointed with his right hand. Finally, Colton bent over and pointed to the tops of both his feet..

“That’s where Jesus’ markers are, Daddy,” he said.