Tag: Sadducees

I was invited to share lunch last Thursday with Circle II.  At one point the conveersation turned to the book written by a 12 year old that has become a national bestseller.  It’s called Heaven is for Real.  I didn’t know anything about it.  Apparently, the boy, Colton Burpo, was just a few months shy of his fourth birthday when he experienced a ruptured appendix.  He had surgery and woke up to say that he’d been to heaven. The book published 8 years later claims that Colton had seen his great grandfather, Jesus, including, of course, the wounds on his hands.
I must say that when I read about that little detail, my skepticism was heightened.  And when I further read that the author of the book was not Colton, but his dad Todd, who is also an evangelical minister, it made sense.  In the evangelical fold, much hinges upon the acceptance of “Christ’s wounds, open for thee,” as Catherine Booth put it in a famous hymn, “The Wounds of Christ are Open.”
Furthermore, it turns out that the 12 year old Colton did not write it.  Over the years, as he told his story, and we can imagine, was encouraged in telling his story, his father decided to write the book, Heaven is For Real, claiming his son was the inspiration.
It is, of course, my own conjecture to say that the story is just that — a story trying to pass off as a factual account.  Sages and seers through the ages have never been able to agree on this matter.  Nevertheless, the wisest of them seem to agree with Jesus — it’s better to pay attention to other things for there are some things about which we know nothing. Continue reading “March 27 — Love on the Edge”