Modern Miracles (Part 2): Heaven Is For Real

After reading the title of this post, please circle your initial response below:

     A. Omg really? thats awessooommmeeee
     B. tell me something I don't already know... -_-
     C. hah. yea right!
     D. Peanut butter$z%&#!


The answer key is listed below:










ANSWER KEY
If you circled A, --- Yea, high five!
If you circled B, --- Oh, I will. Just hang tight for a second.
If you circled C, --- Read on and weep! . . . for joy, of course! ;)
If you circled D, --- Wow, you actually picked this answer? Well, for your absolute brilliance, you are rewarded with this picture of a shiny egg:

Shiiinnnyyy~~~

Now, do you wanna hear the weird part? Technically, answer D is a perfectly valid answer.

Whaaat???

Wait, wait, hear me out. It's not as farfetched as you think. If Heaven really does exist, the truth of that premise is so astronomical, so earth-shattering that taking full grasp of that concept would essentially blow your mind to the point of absurdity. Hence, peanut butter. Do you follow the logic? Heaven is for real: if you ever really got it, you would go bananas.

Banana!!!

Fortunately, that is not exactly the case with the boy who came back from Heaven. Colton Burpo was about 4 years old when God called him home to Heaven; he died while on the operating table after having had the poisons of a fully-ruptured appendix course through his tiny 4-year-old body for five days straight. Despite multiple tests by doctors and nurses, the medical staff had not diagnosed Colton with appendicitis until it was too late.

This is Colton when he was 4 years old

And for those of you who just started crying, you can stop doing that now. Colton miraculously revitalized after surgeons nearly gave him up for dead. Today, Colton is a perfectly healthy and charming 13 year old who attends middle school in his hometown in Nebraska. I would also term him perfectly normal too, were it not for the fact that after cheating death like a boss, Colton began to exhibit some... oddities. (Or bananas, if you will.)

Banana #1
Colton claims that Jesus sent him back to earth from Heaven

Months later and driving by the same hospital that Colton was operated on, Colton's parents jokingly pointed at the hospital and asked him if he remembered what that building was. He replied: "Yeah, that's where Jesus told me He was gonna let me go home because you'd be really sad if I went away."

Both parents blinked at each other. They asked, "... say that again, Colton?"

"Yeah! Jesus made the angels sing to me there because I was scared."

Dad pulled the car over immediately. Remember, this kid is 4 years old!

Banana #2
Colton could specifically identify his parents' locations while he was being operated on

Curiosity obviously peaked at this point, Colton's parents asked him what exactly happened to him when he was being operated on. "Oh, well, I got really sleepy. But when I woke up, I saw daddy in a room all by himself. He was praying to God and was getting very angry."

Problem was, no one except Dad knew where Dad was during the operation. During the operation, he ducked into an empty hospital room precisely so no one would see him having his breakdown and cursing out God for hurting his son. He told no one. Not even his wife and certainly not Colton!

"Where was mom?" they asked. Colton answered, "Mommy was in a different room. She was talking with somebody on the phone. There were others in the room with her."

Mom confirmed Colton's predictions but was confused. She hadn't told Colton what she was doing either nor had anyone else!

Little did they know, however, about the camo couch! Hehehe

Banana #3
Colton knew hidden facts about his grandfather, who died before Colton was even conceived

Now we get really weird. Some time later, Colton started asking his dad about his dad. Colton's grandfather passed away at least a decade before Colton was born, and Colton's dad never talked about him with Colton. So after some brief descriptions, Colton piped up, "You didn't call him Dad, right? Like I call you Dad? You called him Pop!" Colton's random assertion was right.

Still curious many weeks later, his dad showed Colton a picture of Pop when he pretty old. "Colton, do you know who this is?" Colton had no idea. Then, his dad showed Colton an old, long-forgotten picture of Pop when he was in his 20s. And when I say old, I mean excavated-from-grandma's-memory-chest-in-the-basement-just-five-seconds-ago old! "Do you recognize anyone in this picture, Colton? Anyone at all?" his dad asked.

"Oh, that's easy. That guy on the left is Pop!"



Banana #4
Colton now dislikes every picture of Jesus ever drawn or painted... except for one...

Now, among all the oddities previously mentioned and even the ones not mentioned, this is the one that totally makes you go:

Huh?

How does a kid who goes to Heaven, comes back, and is now obsessed with Jesus go about hating on our pictures of Him? Colton's answer: because they're all wrong!!!

His hair is too long in this one. Now it's too straight. Eyes are the wrong color. His nose isn't right. His beard is too long in this one. Wrong color hair. He looks too unhappy in this one.

His parents had almost given up hope on finding a satisfactory depiction of Jesus when they saw this one:

This is called "Prince of Peace" by Akiane Kramarik, a child prodigy of art who lives in the middle of nowhere: Idaho. She painted this when she was 8 years old. And if that's not crazy enough, she painted this having been raised without religion. She painted it without ever having seen a depiction of the Lord and she titled her painting "Prince of Peace" without ever having known the name Jesus Christ.

Back to our story here, Colton's father got this picture and showed it to Colton. Notice the way he phrases his question: "Ok Colton. What's wrong with this picture here?" He pretends like there's nothing special about it, that everything about it is normal,... which normally for Colton is wrong. But Colton replied:

". . . Dad. . . this one's right."