Tamingway Burpo Story

At the age of four, most children have a great imagination. The type of imagination that when they tell stories, you can't even begin to believe them. Colton Burpo is a prime example of a child with a wonderful imagination, so everyone thinks. A trip to Heaven and back is not an everyday story you hear of, especially coming from a four year old. Although it may be hard to believe young Colton Burpo, this is not just another story made up in his significant imagination. Coming from a family that didn't have an extravagant amount of money, Colton Burpo was always a happy, sweet, and caring young boy, just like his father, Todd Burpo. Todd Burpo was their local preacher at the Crossroads Wesleyan Church. Sonja Burpo, Colton and his older sister,
Cassie Burpo’s mother, worked part time as a teacher. Not having a lot of money meant that the Burpo’s didn't always get the chance to go on family vacations. When they did get the chance, they had went to Greeley Colorado, just in time for the district board meeting of their church denomination. While visiting Greeley, Sonja and Todd decided to take the kids to the butterfly pavilion. Two days before, Colton had complained of his stomach starting to hurt him. Momentarily, his sister, Cassie had the same issue with her stomach. Sonja just thought, “Oh the flu has been going around, it's nothing too serious.” A few days later, Cassie had finally quit vomiting, while Colton was still up every thirty minutes running to the trash can or toilet. Colton had sat huddled up in the corner of a huge couch on top of a blanket with a trash can nearby. At this point, Todd’s heart hurt for his son. After doing some research on Colton’s symptoms, they finally come to question if Colton could possibly have appendicitis. On Monday, March 3rd, the nurses placed Colton in a room and inserted an IV.
(Pg. 25) At this point, many x-rays, and CT scans were taken. After the CT scan was over, the technician did not take Todd and Sonja back to the waiting room, in fact, he took them to the isolated hallway where a few chairs were lined up against the wall. Both Sonja and Todd knew that something was wrong with their little boy. Five minutes into sitting in the hallway, a white-coated man emerged from the imaging lab. The radiologist had said that Colton has a ruptured appendix, and would be needing emergency surgery. As Colton began screaming and crying for his father to not let the doctors take him, Todd was very confused and upset with God. “Where are you? Is this how you treat your pastors?! Is it even worth it to serve you?.” (Pg. 39) That's when everything hit Todd. “We waited too long. I might never see my son alive again.” (Pg. 40) After ninety long minutes of being hurt and confused, a female nurse in purple scrubs, stepped into the waiting room. “Is Colton’s father here?” (Pg. 42) Todd stood up. The nurse had asked Todd to come back. Colton was out of surgery and they couldn't get him to calm down. He was screaming and crying for his father. Sonja and Todd were so relieved to still have their little boy with
them. “Dad, Jesus used Dr.
O’Holleran to fix me,” Colton said. “You need to pay him.” (Pg. 54) Even if Colton had found it in his heart to forgive the good doctor, his little proclamation he just had was weird to Sonja and Todd. This was only the beginning of Colten's little remarks about Jesus that left Sonja and Todd speechless. The family was headed to South Dakota to see their new nephew. On the way there, they had passed by the hospital and Todd joked with Colton. “Hey, Colton, if we turn here, we can go back to the hospital.” “Do you wanna go back to the hospital?” (Pg. 60) It was that conversation where Colton had said that he “went up out of” his body, that he had spoken with angels, and had sat in Jesus’ lap. Sonja and Todd knew Colton wasn't just making this up, because he was able to tell his parents what they were doing in another part of the hospital. Colton had brought up his father getting angry with Jesus, while Sonja had been praying and talking on the phone. Not even Sonja had seen Todd in that little room, having his meltdown with Jesus. At age four, little boys don't exactly come up and offer you long, detailed histories. Not only was young Colton telling his father that he had left his body, he was saying he had left the hospital. Trying to process this all through Todd’s mind was not easy. He questioned to himself, “did my son die and come back?” Clearly something had happened to Colton. He had proved that by telling his parents amazing little details that
he couldn't have just known. As a father, and being a pastor, Todd didn't hesitate to ask any questions about Colton's trip to heaven. Todd had asked Colton how long he was in heaven. You'd think it'd had to have been a long time for all the details he was telling Todd about the horses, angels, and what Jesus had looked like. Colton claims that he was only in heaven for three minutes. How was it possibly that Colton could've seen and done very thing he had described to Todd in only three minutes? Over the next months, even years, Colton began, to the surprise of the parents, to explain what had happened to him while in surgery. The rest of the book is filled with account after account of Colton telling his bewildered parents about his time with Christ in heaven. Things that Colton should not have known and had never been taught came to the surface as this three-year-old boy processed his faith as confirmed through his time with God.