Upon reading my brief review of ‘Heaven Is For Real’ did you, too, not end up wondering “What does Jesus look like?“Thursday, 4 April, 2024 4:16 pm
[First posted April 2012, revised June 2024]
Upon reading my brief review of ‘Heaven Is For Real’ did you, too, not end up wondering “What does Jesus look like?“
Whilst reading the book I was very interested to know, simply because Jesus’ face had been out of sight during my own life-changing encounter, as told herein at ‘1st Validation’.
[I’d seen ‘portraits’ of so-called ‘Master Jesus’ in New Age circles, but didn’t regard them as authentic.]
So, can you imagine how deeply stunned Todd and Sonja Burpo were whilst driving with their two children to hear their 4 year-old suddenly announce he’d heard angels – AND met Jesus?
Answering a gentle tease about what had happened to him during the emergency visit to hospital, little Colton pipes up from the back-seat and stuns mum and dad by telling them what they were doing whilst he was dying on an operating table with a severely ruptured appendix that had poisoned his abdomen.
It wasn’t so much his accurate description of what they were doing in two very different places – on the phone and praying; well, losing it with God! – that hit them. (Only much later did his father learn the finer points of how that prayer of desperation was answered!)
They had to stop at a nearby snack bar to hear again, and digest, Colton’s very quick account of what happened whilst being operated upon. As only a young child can, he described being with Jesus. Over the course of many weeks a fuller account gradually emerged, usually popping out during play times, of what Jesus looks like and of many things Colton “did and saw” during minutes, not hours, of earth time.
There was also, and more importantly, what Colton knew.
Almost all of this could not be attributed to any teaching or children’s Bible stories! The first answer to what Jesus looked like was the answer to a spiritual ‘riddle’: what’s the only thing in heaven that’s the same as it was on earth? He said straight-off, “Jesus has markers”. Huh??
His father claims Colton didn’t know about the crucifixion wounds at that age because their Weslyan church made no references to, or had any pictures of them. For nearly three years his parents would show Colton dozens of illustrations depicting Jesus but they all left him cold. He never saw one that he thought was right. He just could not recognise Jesus in any pictures.
One day Todd came across a CNN report of a young girl Akiane Kramarik, a child prodigy who began painting exceptionally sophisticated artwork at the age of 6 years! A couple of years previously she’d begun having ‘visions’ of heaven, even though both her parents were atheists! The authors of ‘Heaven Is For Real’ write, ‘Slowly her mom began to accept that Akiane’s visions were real and that, therefore, God must be real’.
Todd writes, ‘As I watched a montage of Akiane’s artwork play across my computer screen, the narrator said, “Akiane describes God as vividly as she paints him”! (p 143)
That was similar to how Colton spoke of Jesus – both children spoke especially about His beautiful eyes. So Todd told Colton to come and take a look, asking what was wrong with this one. The boy said nothing, just stared, and he was asked again – still silence and then he got nudged:
‘My seven-year-old turned to look at me and said, “Dad, that one’s right!”
Entitled “Prince of Peace, Resurrection”, her portrait can be seen in Akiane’s Official Gallery under ‘Age 8’ and the next year shows Jesus praying, “Father Forgive Them”. To learn how she saw and painted Him read For child art prodigy Akiane, Jesus is for real.
Below, Ray Downing demonstrates how the picture Colton saw matches the image of the deceased Christ as captured millennia ago on The Shroud of Turin.
Also, you can watch Colton at 11 tell his story on video on Heaven is for Real Ministries. APRIL 2024 – Tim Shey comments with another interesting pictorial comparison: “Richard: I just discovered this today. The video is 3 minutes 55 seconds. Reminds of that scripture: ”in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” (Matthew 18:16)
I say, amen, to what Jim Caviezel wrote on his Facebook page. Reminds me of this quote: “Though swordless, these soldiers of Christ fought the might of imperial Rome and won . . .Unlettered they unblushingly declared the whole counsel of God and eventually staggered the intellectual Greeks.” –Leonard Ravenhill”
NEXT: How Jesus Saved His Own Portrait
Posted by Richard Barker
Categories: After Life, Dreams & Visions, Jesus, Reviews
Tags: #Angels, #Quantum, Heaven/hell
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